KOLKATA (miningweekly.com) – More than two-and-a-half years after it was launched, India's Mining Tenement System (MTS) continues to remain a work in progress with no contract awarded for the project and funds allocated remaining unused.
A Parliamentary committee review of the project has revealed that the MTS, which was launched in 2014, is yet to make any headway, as implementing agency the Indian Bureau of Mines (IBM) has not awarded a contract for the implementation of the project. Bids are still in the technical evaluation phase.
The committee also observed that, during 2015/16, government funding for the MTS was reduced from $8-million to $5-million, of which IBM only used $4-million to advance the project.
However, the Mines Ministry has maintained that the technical evaluation of the bids by companies, including TCS, Wipro and L&T Infotech, will be completed soon and that the MTS contract will be awarded within the next two months.
The proposed MTS is an online system, which will entail a knowledge base of all the mining tenements such as reconnaissance permits, prospecting licences, mining leases, identified mineral resources and areas explored. The system will present the information using a geographical information system to assist the investor to identify an area of interest. The aim of the system is to assist IBM in managing mineral concessions and enable the mineral concessionaires to interact online with these organisations.
In the latest delay to the project, on advice of its consultant, Ernst & Young, the Mines Ministry had extended the submission date for request for proposals to November 20.