Bhopal | May 08, 2015: With the auction of sand mines in 16 districts on Friday, Madhya Pradesh became the first state in the country to start e-auction of sand mines, the state mining corporation said.
According to the new sand mining policy approved by the state cabinet in February, the Madhya Pradesh State Mining Corporation will undertake sand mining in 18 districts, while collectors will auction the remaining mines in 33 districts through e-auctioning.
Secretary of state mining department, Sheo Shekhar Shukla demonstrated the online bidding process and explained how bidders were given names like Emerald, Dollar and Sweetcorn among others.
"E-auction will not only increase the revenue of the state government by five to six times but will also ensure maximum participation of bidders, check illegal sand mining, reduce the monopoly of illegal syndicates, rationalize the sand rates and bring more transparency in the whole auctioning process", Shukla said.
Shukla said that e-auction of sand mines will be carried out in four phases over a month. He said that in each phase there will be three rounds.
He added that in each round, online bidding will be carried out for various selected mines in various districts of the state.
"Under the state mining corporation, 284 super-groups of sand mines spread across 4443 hectares will be e-auctioned. Second phase will be held on May 14 in which mines from 15 districts will be e-auctioned and the third phase will start on May 21. The fourth phase will commence on May 28, 29 and 30," he said, adding that people interested in bidding for sand mining can get themselves registered on www.mpeproc.gov.in and from the same website they can then participate in the auctioning.
Emphasizing that the changes in the sand mining process will bring many benefits, Shukla said that under the new policy they have abolished the provision which envisaged that no other sand mine will be sanctioned within 10 km radius of the mines sanctioned to MP Mining Corporation.
"Roughly four times the area previously under sand mining in the state will be now brought under sand mining," Shukla said.
The 18 districts, in which the state mining department will undertake mining, include Barwani, Hoshangabad, Sehore, Raisen, Harda, Dewas, Gwalior, Bhind, Datia, Tikamgarh, Katni, Satna, Umaria, Narsinghpur, Dhar, Khargone and Khandwa.
(Source: http://www.hindustantimes.com/)