World's biggest coal miner Coal India Ltd (CIL) has plans to spend more than Rs. 40,000 crore over next five years, the miner's chairman S. Narsing Rao revealed on Wednesday.

Mr. Rao was one of the heads of the nine state-run companies who met Finance Minister P. Chidambaram on Wednesday to chart out a timeline for their investment plans.

For the current Plan period, the state-run miner has a capital expenditure plan of Rs. 25,400 crore. The company also presented a plan for additional investment of up to Rs. 15,000 crore. But the additional investments will be made if certain conditions are met.

The miner said it would invest Rs. 7,500 crore on some new projects only in case the evacuation system was implemented through three new rail lines; while another Rs. 7,500 crore would be invested in these projects that would have to be executed by Indian Railways.

So far this year CIL has lost three million tonnes of output. But the miner is still trying to attain a 464.1 million tonnes production target in the fiscal year of 2012-13.

The nine major public sector units (PSUs) have, as per an estimate, cash reserves of around Rs 1.8 lakh crore on hand.

The government wants these companies to increase investments in proposed infrastructure projects to provide a much-required boost to economic growth. The recently released official figures showed that the rate of GDP (gross domestic product) growth dropped to a near three-year low of 5.5 per cent during the three months through June.