New Delhi– The government plans to amend mining rules to ensure transparency in the award of prospecting licences for 100 identified offshore mineral blocks soon, Union Coal and Mines Minister Piyush Goyal said on Wednesday.
“We will not wait for a new law to come. We will bring about amendments to the rules to bring in transparency for the award of exploration and production licences in 100 offshore mineral blocks,” Goyal said at the launch here of the TAMRA mobile app and portal to ensure the transparent award of clearances for mining operations.
“In the spirit of cooperation, the ambition to double the contribution of the mining sector to the Gross Domestic Product is possible. At present, it is 0.76 per cent,” he said.
The Transparency Auction Monitoring and Resource Augmentation (TAMRA) portal and mobile application developed by the Mines Ministry was, on Wednesday, simultaneously launched across 12 mineral rich states, with state ministers of mining and senior officials connected through videoconferencing.
“It will be an interactive platform for all stakeholders to compress the timeline for statutory and other clearances as it is expected to help minimise the gestation period for starting production,” an official statement here said.
TAMRA provides information the blocks to be auctioned classified according to block, state and minerals and monitors various statutory clearances. (IANS)
