The Cabinet on Wednesday approved the proposal to continue the Exploration of Coal and Lignite Scheme, which took effect in 2017-18 and will now go on till 2019-20, with an expenditure of ₹1,875 crore.

“The approved scheme is for carrying out 24,41,500 metre of drilling and 3,575 line-km (LKM) of surface geophysical survey for Promotional (Regional) Exploration & detailed drilling in the non-Coal India Limited blocks, in coal and lignite along with coal bed methane and shale gas studies... to estimate and prove coal resources during the three year period,” the government said.

Under the scheme, the government added, approximately seven billion tonne of resources will be “established” and 11 billion tonne of resources will be “proved”.

“Exploration for coal and lignite is required to estimate and to prove the resources available in the country,” the government release said. “Exploration for coal and lignite in the country is conducted in two broad stages: (i) regional exploration and (ii) detailed drilling.”

Through regional exploration, the explorer can classify occurrences of coal and lignite into ‘Indicated’ and ‘Inferred’ resources. Promising areas identified by regional exploration are taken up for detailed exploration in the second stage, which involves intensive drilling to bring the resources into the ‘Proved1 category.