Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Wednesday told the legislative assembly that the iron ore mining operations in the state, which came to a standstill in 2018, will start by November this year.

The mining industry used to be one of the major revenue earners for the coastal state. However, it stopped functioning in 2018 after the Supreme Court quashed 88 mining leases.

Responding to the demands for grants of the mining department, Sawant told the House during the ongoing Monsoon session of the assembly that nine blocks of iron ore have already been auctioned. The state government has collected Rs 45 crore for the auctioning of the nine blocks, he said.

In December last year, the Goa government said it completed the first phase of auction of mining blocks with four companies winning bids for the extraction of ore from different mineral rich stretches of the coastal state.

Sawant said that of these four blocks, three will start working from the month of November-December this year.?He said that the state will collect additional revenue to the tune of Rs 300-350 crore in the form of concessional fees when these four mining blocks start functioning.

The chief minister ruled out fears that the machinery and manpower from outside Goa would be employed by successful bidders of these blocks. He said the state government will ensure that these mining companies employ local machines and manpower.?

Sawant said that the process of issuing environment clearances by the state government would be expedited. The chief minister said the policy to auction the existing iron ore dumps in the state will be announced next month. He told the House that iron ore to the tune of 700 million tonnes is stocked in the form of dumps across the state.