Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, Sept 8: The state government will put three limestone mines including Garramura block in Nuapada to auction by October for which notification will be issued this month, mines secretary RK Sharma said Thursday.
A decision to this effect was taken at the high power committee meet on mines chaired by development commissioner R Balakrishnan at the Secretariat here.
Apart from Garramura, the other two limestone blocks which would be auctioned include Jampali in Bargarh and another in Malkangiri, sources said. The committee has also suggested the bidding price of these three limestone blocks to the state government which will initiate process for their online auction as per the provisions of the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 2015.
Notably, no bidders had evinced interest in the bidding process for Garramura limestone block in Nuapada district which has ore reserves to the tune of 2.79 million tonne. So, the state government had issued a notification January 6. However, this time the state government is hopeful of its auction.
This apart, the state government is likely to put one more limestone block from Malkangiri and a manganese block from Keonjhar to auction for which the process will be initiated soon.
For e-auction of mineral blocks, the state government has appointed MSTC, a Central PSU, to provide electronic platform for the auction. It has also appointed SBI Capital Markets (SBICAP), a subsidiary of State Bank of India, as the transaction advisor.
Though the state government had planned to put five mineral blocks by August end, it has failed to do so as most of the mineral blocks in the state are at the G-3 level of exploration.
The state government has so far auctioned only one iron block.