At least 22 mines owned by Coal India, the world's biggest coal miner face closure over environmental concerns in Jharkhand, potentially suffering an output loss of up to 40,000 tonnes a day.

The mines in Jharkhand, which provide mostly coking coal for state run firm Steel Authority of India Ltd, have been accused by pollution control authorities of running without proper forest clearance permission.

Mr Sanjay Kumar member of Jharkhand State Pollution Control Board that "We have issued an order to them to shut down.”

But a senior official at Bharat Coking Coal Ltd a unit of Coal India which operates these mines said they had not yet received the closure order.

Mr DC Jha director of BCCL told Reuters that "We have not stopped production yet. We will have to close down once we get the order."

Mr Jha said the 22 open cast and underground mines together produce about 35,000 to 40,000 tonnes of coal a day, adding that the company would petition the central environment ministry on the matter.

(Sourced from ET)