India’s coal imports fell nearly 13% in April 2026NEW DELHI: India has started substituting imported coal with domestic coal at some of its power plants, helping reduce the country’s dependence on overseas supplies.Govt said India’s coal import basket registered a year-on-year decline of nearly 13% in April 2026, with imports falling to 21.1 million tonnes (MT) from nearly 24.3 MT a year earlier. The decline reflected the impact of ministry of coal’s continuing push for import substitution and enhanced domestic coal availability, particularly for power sector.Officials said that while India imports nearly 250 MT of coal every year, it has the potential to substitute about 150 MT with domestic supplies. Some power plants, however, are designed to run solely on imported coal.Coal imports by power plants fell by almost 25%, from 4.7 MT in April 2025 to 3.5 MT in April 2026, driven by improved domestic coal linkages and reduced dependence on imported coal for blending, govt said. Imports for power plants designed to run on imported coal declined 27.5%, from nearly 4 MT to 2.9 MT -- the steepest reduction among all categories tracked.Part of the shortfall was met by state-owned Coal India Limited (CIL), which supplied 154.8 MT of coal to power sector in first quarter of FY26-27, up 1.8% from 151.9 MT in corresponding period of previous fiscal. CIL’s supplies to power plants went up to 51.4 MT in June 2026, up 5.9% from 48.6 MT dispatched in corresponding month last year, driven by rising electricity demand during peak summer season.Govt also said India’s captive and commercial coal mining sector maintained its growth momentum in June 2026, with production and dispatch rising during the month. Coal production from captive and commercial mines stood at 17.9 MT in June 2026, up nearly 14.9% from 15.6 MT in June 2025.The first quarter also saw three coal mines -- Urtan, Dhirauli and Bikram -- commencing production.