The government has constituted an panel to formulate a policy on public-private partnership framework with state-owned CIL as one of the partners to increase coal output.

The development comes close on the heels of Finance Minister P Chidambaram stating in his budget speech that there was a need to devise such a policy to reduce the country's increasing dependence on imported coal.

"In pursuance of the announcement in the Union Budget, 2013, regarding Public Private Partnership (PPP) policy framework with Coal India (CIL) as one of the partners, a Committee...Is constituted," a source in the coal ministry said.

The nine-member committee chaired by Coal Secretary S K Srivastava has representatives from ministries, including Finance and Law and Justice, the source added.

The panel to be serviced by Central Mine Planning & Design Institute Ltd (CMPDI) will "devise a PPP policy framework...In order to increase production of coal," the source said, adding, "The committee shall give a report within a month."

The Finance Minister during the budget speech had stated that in the medium to long-term, the country should reduce its dependence on coal import and one of the ways forward was to devise a PPP policy framework.

The measure, he had said, will lead to increase in domestic coal output for supply to power producers and other consumers of fossil fuel.

CIL, which accounts for over 80 per cent of the domestic coal output, missed its production target last fiscal and produced only 435.84 million tonne (MT) against the revised target of 447 MT.

India's coal imports, which shot up to 100 million MT from April to December last year, is likely to reach 185 MT by FY'17.