Bhubaneswar: In a bid to widen areas of exploration of mineral wealth in the state, chief secretary Aditya Prasad Thursday directed officials to expedite the process for issue of clearances and approvals for starting the mining operations.
Chairing a high-level meeting here, Padhi set timelines for completion of the tasks by departments like revenue and disaster management, forests and environment, steel and mines and the state pollution control board. He also instructed collectors and divisional forest officers (DFOs) to expedite the process.
Padhi advised the steel and mines department to step up preparations for auction of more mines in the coming months. A target was also set to step up the preparations for auction of six more mines by the end of October this year.
At the meeting, the progress of five mining lease projects was reviewed. These included the Ghoraburhani-Sagasahi iron ore block of Sundergarh district, the Kottametta limestone block in Malkangiri district, the Laserda-Pacheri manganese ore block in Keonjhar district, the Kalamanga west iron block in Keonjhar and Sundargarh district and the Netrabandha iron block of Sundargarh district.
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