Indian Ministry of Coal had initially allocated 116 blocks to CIL in May 2012 and later added three additional blocks in Brahmini, Chchro Pastimal and East of Damogoria.
Coal India chairman and managing director S. Narsing Rao told the PTI that company can produce coal from the 13 blocks in one or two years time.
"Thirteen are explored and are in advanced stage, may be in one or two years, one can start production but the balance, there are various stages, exploration, project report, infrastructure, besides the issues like whether the area falls in tiger zone or elephant zone," said Rao.
CIL expects to expand production to 615 million tons of coal by 2016-17 from the current 464 million tons in 2012, reported the Economics Times.
The company is seeking to enhance the production of coal in the country given that in recent times the commodity’s output has declined considerably.
