Piyush Goyal launched TAMRA Portal for transparent Mining Clearances

Piyush Goyal, the Union Minister of State (IC) for Power, Coal, New & Renewable Energy and Mines, on 15 February 2017 launched the Transparency, Auction Monitoring and Resource Augmentation (TAMRA) Portal and Mobile Application.

Simultaneously, the TAMRA portal, developed by the Ministry of Mines, was launched across 12 mineral-rich states.

Objective: TAMRA was created with an aim to speed up mining activity in India and facilitated all stakeholders to track the status of clearances linked to mining blocks for getting mines to reach till operationalisation for the same.

The Flowchart of TAMRA

Salient features of TAMRA

• It covers block-wise, mineral-wise and state-wise information of the mines to be auctioned.

• It will also monitor various statutory clearances and highlight the additional resources generated through e-auction.

• TAMRA platform will help in enhancing transparency and accountability in mining.

• In the case of delay in obtaining any clearances, TAMRA will send triggers to the concerned authority. These triggers will help the authority to take the remedial steps immediately.

• The triggers generated by TAMRA will also be sent to the ministry of mines, which will allow the ministry to expedite clearances in case the timelines set against each of the statutory clearances are not met.

• The status of each of the clearances will be reflected on the portal.

• The portal will also enable the successful bidders to give suggestions and inputs to improve the current process of issuing statutory clearances in the mining sector. This process will enable the government in establishing a participative and informative network among all stakeholders.

In addition to the launch of TAMRA, Piyush Goyal also announced that the government is planning to bring amendments to mining rules. The rules will be amended to bring transparency in the award of exploitation and mining licences for the 100 identified off-shore mineral blocks.