Goemkarponn desk
PANAJI: The Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant announced to the legislative house that the state’s iron ore mining operations, which ceased in 2018, will resume by November of this year.
In the past, the coastal state’s main source of income was from the mining sector. After 88 mining leases were annulled by the Supreme Court in 2018, it ceased to operate.
During the current Monsoon session of the assembly, Sawant informed the House in response to the mining department’s requests for grants that nine blocks of iron ore had already been auctioned.
According to him, the state government has received Rs 45 crore from the sale of the nine blocks.
The Goa government announced in December of last year that the first round of mining block auctions had been completed, with four businesses acquiring the right to harvest ore from various mineral-rich areas of the coastal state.
Three of these four blocks will begin operations in the months of November and December of this year, according to Sawant.
When these four mining blocks begin operations, he claimed that the state will receive additional funds in the range of Rs 300-350 crore in the form of concessional fees.
The state minister allayed concerns that successful bidders of these blocks would use equipment and labor from outside Goa.
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