Doesn’t India have massive coal reserves?

This is a misconception that we carry - Brookings energy security study for india says that “India is projected to run out of coal, its primary source of energy, in forty years.” CMPDI also puts the estimates for extractable reserves, in India between 30-40 years.

As the Sankar Committee and the Integrated Energy Policy reports point out - India does not have surplus coal, they say

1) India only has an estimated 56-71 BT of extractable coal, out of the 250 BT of geological resource and
2) There is a projected increase in import of non-coking coal, to meet the demand for power generation.

India is already importing 12% of the coal it uses, and Importing more coal will strain our economy.
New coal plants have a project life of about 50 years – and building new plants – India will not be able to supply the demand for coal and importing coal will only impose increasing costs on years to come and make India, more vulnerable to energy security and strain our economy.