Team Herald
PANJIM: Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Saturday said that four mineral blocks auctioned in the first phase may start mining activity in the financial year 2023-2024 while e-auctioning of five more mining blocks was completed in the second phased last month.
Sawant informed this during the 8th Governing Council Meeting of NITI Aayog in New Delhi chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in the presence of Union Ministers, Chief Ministers of other States and officials of NITI Aayog.
The first auction of four iron ore mineral blocks was completed in December 2022 and the State government received an upfront payment of Rs 43 cr from them. The government is in the process of evolving a policy for handling iron dumps.
A dump profile study is planned to understand the nature of dumps in terms of its quality and quantity, he said.
Highlighting several proposed initiatives of the State, Sawant said the government is working on the projects of inter-linking of river storage dams in the State. In the first instance six major dams at Nirankal, Cajumol, Tatodi and Mhadeiriver will be brought under the project, to store about 20.91 TMC of water raw water. The State has completed rejuvenation of 164 water bodies under the “Amrit Sarovar Mission.”
In order to upgrade all the ITIs in the State to “Centre of Excellence” and to promote skill education, the State will sign MoU with Tata Technology Ltd. Initially, five ITIs will be upgraded under this project at project cost of Rs 209 cr in sharing ratio of 86%:14% between Tata Technology Ltd and the State government. Under this project new age technology courses will be offered to youth of Goa.
New projects commissioned after June 2022 by the Electricity Department will be mapped onto the PM Gati Shakti portal by 31st May 2023. PWD projects are also being mapped onto the portal. Presently, 88 iron ore mining leases have been plotted on the Gatishakti Portal and it is proposed to plot the co-ordinates of minor mineral leases namely Laterite, Basalt, Dolomite & Bentonite. It is also proposed that all the mineral transportation routes, jetties used for transportation of minerals and all the plants used for captive consumption of minerals shall be mapped on the PM Gati Shakti platform.
Under the “Swayampurna Goa Initiative, the government has focused on skilling, reskilling and upskilling of women at panchayat level for empowering women to sustain themselves on their own. We are in the process of formulating the “Mukhyamantri Annapurna Yojana” wherein priority will be given to Self-help groups to run the government canteens in the State,” Sawant said.
