State to provide land to Hindustan Salts for mining
Tribune News Service
Mandi, January 22
Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur today directed the Deputy Commissioner, Mandi, to provide land to Hindustan Salts Limited to restart mining rock salt in the state.
The directions were issued after the company’s Chairman-cum-Managing Director SP Bansal called on Thakur in Mandi town and urged him to provide land on lease for processing and increasing the production of rock salt from the Gumma and Darang mines in Mandi district.
After a long gap, the company started salt production at the Gumma mine today. Mandi MP Ramswaroop Sharma and Darang MLA Jawahar Thakur were present.
The mines initially started in May 1963. They were closed in January 2011 after the Ministry of Environment and Forests refused to grant non-forest clearance to the company. After re-commissioning in March 2016, the company aims to extract around 7,000 metric tonne of salt every year.
As per estimates, the mines have 58 million tonnes of total deposits.
The company has permission to set up a plant for the extraction of rock salt at a cost of Rs 300 crore.
The rock salt mines, when fully commissioned, will provide employment to more than 2,000 youngsters, which will also benefit the state.
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