Critically analyse the objectives and feasibility of 'Mission Coking Coal' in reducing India's import dependence on metallurgical coal.

India imports roughly 90% of its metallurgical coal — 56.05 MT in 2022-23 [2]. 'Mission Coking Coal', launched by the Ministry of Coal, responds by targeting 140 MT of domestic raw coking coal by FY 2029-30 [1]. Its objectives are well-framed, but feasibility rests less on mining more coal than on making it usable.

Objectives

• Import substitution in a sector where coking coal is over 30% of blast-furnace (BF-BOF) steelmaking cost, making the steel industry hostage to global price cycles [2].
• Resource utilisation — tapping a base of about 34 billion tonnes of coking coal resources, of which ~18 billion tonnes are proven [3].
• Supply-side reform — identifying fresh blocks for CIL and the private sector, auctioning CBM-overlap blocks, and allotting linkages to private washeries on an aggregator model [1].

Feasibility — enabling factors

• A concrete roadmap splits the target as 105 MT by CIL and 35 MT from allocated blocks [1].
• Institutional backing has deepened: coking coal has been notified a critical and strategic mineral under the MMDR Act, 1957 [5], and washed-coal supply to steel plants has been rising through Coal Ministry initiatives [6].
• Complementary trade action — the 12% safeguard duty on flat steel imports (April 2025) — protects domestic capacity while supply reforms mature [4].

Feasibility — structural constraints

• Indian coking coal is high-ash and unfit for direct blast-furnace use; mining and washing technology has not kept pace with steel industry needs [3].
• The target counts raw, not washed, tonnes — without beneficiation capacity, higher output need not cut imports [1][3].
• The Committee's own asks — advanced beneficiation and a policy for washery rejects and middlings — remain the binding gap, since unsold rejects keep washeries below capacity [1].
• Underground mining, where most quality seams lie, still awaits the recommended tax incentives [1].

The Mission is therefore directionally right but presently measured by the wrong metric. Shifting the progress indicator to washed coking coal supplied to steel plants, coupled with scrap-based electric arc furnace capacity, would convert a production target into genuine Atmanirbharta in steel.