Can India finally end its addiction to imported coal?

India runs 18.7 gigawatts of power capacity in plants designed to burn imported coal, mostly from Indonesia, South Africa, and Russia. So far in 2026, domestic coal is already powering 5.7 GW of that capacity, and trials are underway to extend the shift to another 4.3 GW, pushing the domestic share well past 50%. Some plants are now running on as much as 70% local coal, a remarkable turnaround driven by plant upgrades to handle higher-ash domestic fuel.

The numbers tell a clear story. Coal imports for blending in the power sector fell 54% in April to December 2025 compared to the previous year, dropping from 12 million tonnes to just 5.5 million tonnes. India’s thermal coal imports by power plants hit a four-year low in FY 2025-26, falling 27.5% year-on-year to 45.38 million metric tonnes. Coal India is sitting on record stockpiles of around 126 million tonnes at pithead, making doorstep supply to coastal import-based plants both practical and cost-effective.

Behind this shift is a deliberate industrial policy. The government set a target to cut power-sector coal imports by 30%, or at least 15 million tonnes, in 2026. Coal India is also drawing up a ten-year roadmap aimed at total substitution of all “substitutable” imports by 2036, backed by plans to ramp production to one billion tonnes by 2028-29. The big enabler is renewable energy, which grew 21% in FY26, freeing up domestic coal that can now be redirected to coastal power plants.