New Act for offshore mining, exploration soon: Official

Kolkata, Oct 18: India will introduce a new Act to bring in regulations, including auctioning, in the offshore mining and exploration sector, a top official said here on Tuesday.

"There will be a big change in offshore regulatory regime for exploration as well as mining. We are bringing out a new Act. We are going to introduce auctioning in offshore sites," Secretary from Ministry of Mines Balvinder Kumar said.

He was speaking at the launch of the Geological Survey of India's Online Core Business Integrated System (OCBIS).

Kumar said the new regulation is in the drafting stage and will take about two to three months to be introduced.

"We had allotted certain blocks in 2012 but people went to court because the rules were not there. So now we have cancelled those blocks and are drafting a new Act," he said.