Gujarat, with third largest reserve of lignite, has sent four mining proposals, of which three have been cleared and one is pending for want of NoC from the Petroleum Ministry, Rajya Sabha was informed today.
Gujarat has lignite reserves of 2,722 million tonnes, the third largest after Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan, Coal and Mines Minister Piyush Goyal said during the Question Hour.
"I believe large quantity of lignite will be explored," he added.
"We received total four proposals from the state government. Three have been approved. The fourth proposal is reserving lignite bearing area of 310 hectare in Kutch. It is pending in want of NoC from Petroleum Ministry," he said.
Replying to supplementaries, Goyal said the proposal of the state government to reserve Valia lignite block of 315 hectare to the Gujarat Mineral Development Corporation (GMDC) was approved by the Union Coal Ministry in February 2016.
"We have given the block recently to the Gujarat government. They have to prepare the exploration and mining plan and get is approved. There is no timeframe given when it will start," the minister said.
