Coal India Limited to invest $7.7 billion in new coal exploitation programs

Indian coal miner Coal India Limited (CIL) has announced that it will invest $7.7 billion to launch several coal exploitation programs in the near term in India.
 
CIL is the largest coal producer in India. During the government's 11th five-year plan period (2007-12), India expects to produce 447 million mt of coal.
 
Meanwhile, following the signing of a framework agreement for nuclear cooperation, India and the US have now begun to seek further cooperation in the coal sector.
 
India possesses prospective reserves of 277 billion mt of coal and proven reserves of 111 billion mt of coal at present. As most coal mines in India are underground pits which require high technology, India is now seeking cooperation with the US in order to overcome the bottlenecks in exploitation.