The State owned miner Coal India Limited (CIL) will invest USD 20 billion (over Rs 1.27 lakh crore) for the purpose of increasing production to one billion tonne over the next five years, Piyush Goyal said on Friday.

“CIL has set a target to attain one billion tonne of coal production by 2019-20. This would entail a ballpark investment of USD 20 billion,” Goyal said.

He also said that the money would be spent in equipment, technology and up gradation of the existing facilities.

“A part of it will also go towards setting up infrastructure for evacuation”. The investment amount has been arrived at following a detailed mine-by-mine plan, he said, and added that the balance sheet of CIL was strong enough to support the capital expenditure programme.

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