System soon to spot hurdles in starting production at mines

The government is readying a mechanism to identify bottlenecks in operationalising auctioned mineral blocks, said officials aware of the plans.

Towards this, a new centralised portal will track the status of approvals granted for these blocks to allow officials push for speedier clearances. "The portal will bring transparency in the mine approval system," a senior official told ET.

The move stems from the Centre's worry regarding prolonged delays in starting production at auctioned mines.

According to an official analysis, only 56 out of more than 440 auctioned mines are currently operational.

Among these, 18 are greenfield since the start of the auction regime in 2015. The Centre estimates that 678 or 38% of all non-working mines have been impacted by delays in environment and forest clearances.

"Pending approvals at state and district level are the primary reason for non-working of auctioned mines," the official said, adding central government officers will push counterparts in states to give speedier approvals or send back files so that necessary corrections can be promptly made.

According to an official presentation on expediting mineral blocks operationalisation, a centralised dashboard is necessary to track project progress. This new portal will have detailed project schedules with milestone tracking, coupled with regular and transparent reporting.

The portal will also host a review mechanism for milestones with the ability to notify stakeholders with details like the milestone name, due date, and further actions necessary.

The system will generate trigger alerts when the clearance status changes from pending to under review, or under review to approved. The Centre has already divided states where mining activities take place into categories considering their challenges, work done, and interventions required.