Forest clearance for Daitari mines by April.

Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC) is hopeful of Union Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) granting the final forest clearance for its largest iron ore mine at Daitari by the end of March or in first week of April, enabling it to expand production from 0.6 million tonne to 3 million tonne a year.

'We are hopeful that the stage-II forest clearance would be received by the end of March. The expansion programme would follow soon after that,' said Saswat Mishra, chairman-cum-managing director (CMD) of OMC.

The state-run miner had received the stage-I forest clearance in January this year, amid a series of clearances expedited by new MoEF minister, M Veerappa Moily after the exit of Jayanthi Natarajan from the ministry.

BS