The Mamata Banerjee government has engaged an agency to remove basalt — hard, dark rock — from 376 acres of land in the proposed coal mine project in Birbhum’s Deocha-Pachami.

This is considered to be the first major step towards mining of coal from the much-talked-about project.

“A national tender was floated, and an agency was selected to lift the basalt from 376 acres in the project area.... The revenue that would be earned from the basalt to be lifted from the project area would be shared between the state government and the private agency on 71:29 basis,” a senior government official told The Telegraph.

Chief secretary Manoj Pant held a meeting with senior government officials at Nabanna on Saturday to draw up a detailed plan to make the project successful.

It was discussed in the meeting that the state government would soon float a global tender inviting expert agencies to mine coal from the 376 acres of land from where basalt would be lifted.

“It is expected that the process of extraction of basalt would start by January-end next year and all procedures to float global tender for mining coal would be completed by early February 2025,” said another official.

Sources said that the state government officials were hopeful of making the coal mine functional before the 2026 Assembly polls as the ruling party was depending heavily on the project to counter the questions often raised over the lack of employment opportunities in the state.

“The thickness of the basalt overburden in the first phase of the project varies between 100 metres and 350 metres. It is not difficult to lift this overburden. Once the basalt is lifted, it would be easy to mine coal from the area,” said a source.

Initial assessment by the government suggested that it would easily get several interested agencies to mine coal once the basalt overburden was lifted.

“There is a reserve of 400 million tonnes of coal under the 376 acres which was identified for the first phase of project. So, it is expected that there will be no dearth of interested agencies,” said a source.

The state could also earn a handsome amount of ₹5,000 crore from the basalt to be lifted from the area earmarked for the first phase.

“A total of 142 million of premium quality basalt would be lifted from the area. The market rate of the basalt would be around ₹7,000 crore. As the state would get 71 per cent share of the police of basalt, a handsome amount would be deposited to the state exchequer,” said a source.

A senior bureaucrat said that the state was banking on the project for new jobs more than revenue.

“The state government is facing questions over the lack of employment opportunities. If the first phase of the coal mine project is commissioned before the polls, at least 30,000 employment opportunities could be created. This is the reason why the state is eager to start coal mining before 2026,” said a bureaucrat.

Sources also said that as the area where the first phase of the project was planned was free from all encumbrances, extraction of basalt could be started immediately.

A section of officials said that the state government was eager to start coal mining from Deocha-Pachami as this was the only project that could be made visible ahead of the 2026 polls.

The state had stressed three major projects ahead of the 2026 Assembly polls — the deep sea port in Tajpur, industrial corridor projects and Deocha-Pachami coal mine.

“The future of the proposed deep sea port is uncertain. Lack of funds and unavailability of land left the industrial corridor project in rough waters. Deocha-Pachami is the only project where the state can make some progress. This is the reason why the state has decided to give every effort to make the project successful,” said a senior bureaucrat.