Overview
- The Union Cabinet has formalized a ₹37,500 crore financial package to de-risk and fast-track surface coal and lignite gasification projects, building on an earlier ₹8,500 crore support measure.
- Officials say the policy push includes national roadshows and state coordination, with Odisha and Maharashtra already rolling out incentive frameworks and the Centre urging other coal-bearing states to follow suit.
- The government projects coal gasification could attract about ₹2.5–3 lakh crore of investment, enable roughly 25 large projects and create near 50,000 direct and indirect jobs as deployment scales.
- Coal Ministry officials highlight that products made by gasifying India’s coal—such as synthetic natural gas, ammonia, methanol, DME, hydrogen and coking-coal substitutes—covered about ₹2.77 lakh crore of imports in FY25 and that early projects could substitute around ₹20,000 crore.
- The scheme is technology-agnostic but stresses matching routes to India’s high-ash coal and developing indigenous capability, with pilot efforts by PSUs like BHEL to adapt gasification for local feedstock and industries.