New Delhi, May 14 -- The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved a Scheme for Promotion of Surface Coal/Lignite Gasification Projects with a financial outlay of Rs.37,500 crore aimed at accelerating India's coal gasification programme and advancing the target of gasifying 100 million tonnes of coal by 2030.

The scheme seeks to strengthen India's energy security and reduce dependence on imports of products such as LNG, urea, ammonia and methanol. As part of the reform measures, the government has also extended coal linkage tenure up to 30 years under the "Production of Syngas leading to Coal Gasification" sub-sector in the Non-Regulated Sector linkage auction framework to provide long-term policy certainty for i...