Chhattisgarh to auction 16 iron ore, limestone mines in next 2-3 months

The Chhattisgarh government plans to auction 16 new blocks of iron ore and limestone in the next two-three months, officials said.

It was informed on Friday during a virtual meeting of Union Coal and Mines Minister Pralhad Joshi which was attended by the Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel from here, they said.

During the meeting, the chief minister also requested Joshi to amend the Centre's order to make the district collector as ex-officio chairman of the District Mineral Foundation (DMF).

The Union minister appreciated the state government for proactively taking steps on the direction of the Centre to bring more mines into auctions, a public relations department official said.

He added that it was informed in the meeting that the priority of the Centre is to allocate mines through the auctioning process.

Under this, Chhattisgarh has been preparing to auction 16 new blocks of iron ore and limestone in the next 2-3 months under the first phase, the official said.

The union minister said Chhattisgarh is the first state in the country to auction mine blocks as per the direction of the Government of India, and congratulated Baghel for it, the official said.

In a series of tweets, Joshi said, ''Following up on mining reforms, had a meeting with CM of Chhattisgarh, Shri @bhupeshbaghel ji. Deliberated on several ongoing issues pertaining to coal and mineral mining in state. Government is working with state administration to facilitate early operationalisation of auctioned mines.'' In an another tweet, he said, ''Hon'ble CM has assured to auction more than 16 blocks over the next 2 months. These will be from long-standing blocked mines that have reserves of 1,192 MT worth nearly Rs 1.9 lakh crore.'' Emphasising on promoting iron-ore based industrialisation in Bastar, Baghel urged Joshi to reserve Bailadila iron ore deposit No. 1 (Dantewada district) in favour of Chhattisgarh Mineral Development Corporation (CMDC), he said.

Saying industrialisation can prove to be a better tool to eliminate naxalism from the Bastar region, Baghel told the union minister who has assured to take necessary initiative in this direction.

Meanwhile, the Chief Minister requested to amend the Centres order to make the district collector as ex-officio chairman and all MPs as ex-officio members of the DMF.

Baghel said that the state ministers, who are in-charge of the concerned district, should continue as the ex-officio chairman of the DMF while there is no issue in inducting all MPs as ex-officio members, the official said.

The chief minister also told the Union minister that despite being a coal-rich state, Chhattisgarh's public sector undertakings do not have any coal blocks in their possession for mining and requested to allocate Tara coal block in favour of CMDC, he added.

In June last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the auction process for 41 coal blocks for commercial mining, thereby opening the coal sector to the private players.

The auction of coal mines for commercial mining witnessed ''fierce competition'' and the 19 blocks went under the hammer.

Joshi had said that the auction of the said blocks can generate total revenues of around Rs 7,000 crore per annum and create over 69,000 jobs once they are operationalised.

Some of the corporate biggies that bagged blocks include Adani Enterprises, Vedanta, Hindalco Industries and Jindal Power.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)