Gandhinagar

BJP led NDA government in centre has approved Gujarat government proposal to reserve 3,015 hector lignite rich area around Valia in Bharuch district for Gujarat government owned company Gujarat Mineral Development Corporation(GMDC).

Welcoming the decision, Energy minister Saurabh Patel said this would avail 80-100 million tonne lignite buried in Valia area to GMDC to state.

Through mining of this stock of lignite, the industries in Gujarat will get lignite at affordable rate on time.

The minister said Gujarat has about 2,900 million tonne lignite in the areas of Kutch, Bharuch, Surat and Bhavnagar.

GMDC at present produces about 10-11 mt lignite every year from Panandhro, Matano Madh, Bharuch, Rajpardi, Tadkeshwar and Surka(north) which is used in textiles, chemicals, ceramic and brick industries. Lignite is also used i Akrimota power plant and Kutch lignite thermal power station in Kutch and GIPCL power plant in Valia.

He said, coal producing states like West Bengal, Jharkhand, Odisha and Andhra are far away from Gujarat. Moreover Gujarat doesn’t have presence of coal. In such case lignite is the only source of fuel.

In view of industrial development in Gujarat, the demand of lignite could be in range of 30-35 mt per year. To cover this demand, lignite mining would be needed in Gujarat. 100 mt lignite in EFG lignite block of Valia area reserved for GMDC is valued at Rs 10,000 crore.

– DeshGujarat

🗃️ This story is from our archives and may contain outdated information.