Assam CM meets union ministers, seeks new mineral extraction, expanded coal linkages, & railway infra boost
Himanta Biswa Sarma on Tuesday met Union Minister for Coal and Mines,
G. Kishen Reddy
and urged hm to extract new minerals.
During detailed discussions at the Union Minister's office at Shastri Bhawan, Chief Minister Sarma requested Union Minister Reddy to extract new minerals and to build seamless
coal linkages
to the upcoming thermal power plants in the State.
The Chief Minister also urged the Union Minister to expand its area of operations at the
Margherita coal mines
to help Assam to augment its income from coal.
Reddy assured Sarma that he would look into the requirements of Assam in the crucial coal and mines sector to refuel the economy.
"The discussion focused on harnessing Assam's mineral potential and strengthening cooperation in the mining sector," said CMO Assam in its official X handle.
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Officials from Coal and Mines pointed out that the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) recently approved revisions to the country's Shakti Policy, setting off coal sector reforms that aims to transparently allocate coal to thermal power plants, while simplifying the processes around it.
This comes against the backdrop of India's double achievement of surpassing 1 billion tonnes in coal production and despatch in 2024-2025.
Later, taking to X (formerly Twitter), Sarma posted, "Had a good meeting on securing Assam's coal and mineral requirements with Hon'ble Union Minister Shri @kishanreddybjp Ji. We had an in-depth discussion on building seamless coal linkages to the upcoming thermal power plants in the State; expanding operations at the Margherita coal mines and extraction of new minerals."
Biswa Sarma on Tuesday also met Union Minister for Railway,
Ashwini Vaishnaw
at Rail Bhawan.
The meeting discussed at length on mitigating legacy transport bottlenecks through expansion of
railway infrastructure
in the State and region, modernising technologies, improving data sharing, optimising workflows and embracing collaborations.
Railway Minister Vaishnaw acknowledged the fact that strengthening the railway infrastructure through expansion and improving existing ones are vital to pave the way for building a logistics hub in Assam.
The meeting lasted for close to an hour.
Later, taking to micro blogging platform X (formerly Twitter) Chief Minister Sarma wrote, Always a pleasure to meet Hon'ble Minister Shri @AshwiniVaishnaw Ji.
Today we spoke at length on several efforts to mitigate legacy transport bottlenecks and expand Assam's rail infrastructure. These are crucial check marks as we plan to build a logistics hub in the State."
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