On May 13th, the Indian cabinet formally approved a special scheme totaling 375 billion rupees (approximately 3.92 billion US dollars). The plan aims to leverage large-scale coal gasification projects to convert the nation's abundant domestic coal reserves into cleaner industrial energy, thereby reducing reliance on imported fuels.
Information Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw stated during a briefing that the core objective of the scheme is to encourage the conversion of coal into syngas for widespread use in critical industrial sectors such as power generation, fertilizer production, and petrochemicals. Vaishnaw emphasized that, against the backdrop of ongoing Middle Eastern tensions disrupting global energy markets, this initiative will effectively reduce India's import demand for bulk commodities like liquefied natural gas (LNG), urea, ammonia, and methanol, holding strategic significance for national energy security.
According to the support policy, the Indian government will provide approximately a 20% financial subsidy for the construction of coal gasification plants and related machinery and equipment. Vaishnaw noted that India currently possesses significant coal reserves of about 401 billion tons and lignite reserves of 47 billion tons, ranking among the world's highest. Through this scheme, India targets achieving an annual coal gasification capacity of 75 million metric tons and is expected to catalyze total societal investments of around 3 trillion rupees.
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