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Maharashtra has mandated a 5-7% bamboo biomass blend in coal plants.
The initiative aims to reduce emissions, create new markets for bamboo and support the state’s climate goals.
The policy is backed by significant financial incentives and is expected to generate employment.
Maharashtra mandated December 2, 2025 that all public and private thermal power plants in the state need to blend 5-7 per cent bamboo-based biomass or charcoal with coal.
The requirement, notified under the new Maharashtra Bamboo Industry Policy, 2025, positions bamboo as a formal component of the state’s energy mix for the first time. The state has huge bamboo-growing potential, despite declining production.
The blending mandate is one of the most consequential interventions in the policy, aimed at lowering emissions from coal-based generation while creating a new industrial market for bamboo producers. The government has backed this transition with a Rs 1,534 crore outlay for the first five years (2025–2030) and a larger Rs 11,797 crore incentive framework over the 20-year project lifecycle.
Bamboo, described as “green gold”, is among the world’s fastest-growing renewable biomaterials. It can sequester large amounts of carbon dioxide, regenerate degraded soils, and grow with minimal input compared to commercial timber or agricultural energy crops. Maharashtra’s policy leans heavily on these characteristics to position bamboo as a low-emission substitute in industrial combustion.
The shift to bamboo biomass aims to:
cut lifecycle emissions from coal plants
reduce dependence on fossil fuels
enable co-firing without major changes in boiler infrastructure
and improve the carbon intensity of state utilities — supporting Maharashtra’s climate targets and its alignment with India’s broader decarbonisation commitments
The policy also dovetails with India’s national direction to gradually raise biomass co-firing in coal plants, but Maharashtra becomes one of the first states to specify a bamboo-only component, recognising both its abundance and fast regeneration cycle.
The state government expects the bamboo-coal blending mandate to catalyse an entire value chain — from plantation and harvesting to processing, pelletisation and charcoal production. Bamboo-rich districts such as Gadchiroli, Chandrapur, Satara, Kolhapur and Nashik are expected to emerge as production hubs.
The policy estimates 500,000 direct and indirect jobs across cultivation, processing and manufacturing. The state also foresees a sharp rise in bamboo-based industrial clusters, strengthened FPOs and contract farming models and a boost to micro-, small- and medium-scale enterprises engaged in biomass and biochar manufacturing.
By substituting a fraction of coal with bamboo biomass, Maharashtra also hopes to attract global green investment and position itself as an emerging player in the bamboo-based carbon credit market, which the policy seeks to formalise.