A senior government official stated that the Center is in the process of devising an incentive program for local manufacturing heavy equipment for mining. Vikram Dev Dutt, secretary to the Union ministry of coal, made the announcement during the curtain raiser for the International Mining Equipment & Minerals Exhibition (IME) 2025. He said the ministry is working with Coal India Ltd., a state mining major, on the program.
There is an element of import dependence, especially in the import of heavy equipment. Although there are segments and elements where we have fairly good indigenous manufacturing capability. We are actively working in close collaboration with Coal India to see how the indigenous manufacturing system for machinery could be incentivized," he said.
The encouragement of local manufacturing of heavy mining equipment comes at a time when local production of coal has taken off, and the nation saw output hit 1 billion tonne in 2024-25 when meeting growing power demand. Coal India imports high capacity equipment, such as electric rope shovels, hydraulic shovels, dumpers, crawler dozers, drills, motor graders, front-end loaders, and wheel dozers.
A high-level interdisciplinary committee set by the government in 2023 encouraged the standardization of equipment to stimulate domestic manufacturing for captive and commercial mine operators, outsourcing contractors, and departmental equipment. It additionally suggested that clauses in tenders should foster the use of indigenous equipment for the ‘Make in India’ campaign.
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