Panaji (Goa) 

The work on much awaited mining corridor to decongest the traffic on the main roads caused by the trucks carrying iron ore is likely to start from next month, a senior official said today.
The mining corridors are planned in South Goa linking the iron ore extraction site to the jetties along the rivers from where the ore is transported to the Mormugao Port Trust harbour.
“The work on second phase of mining corridor costing Rs 100 crore connecting Guddemol to Kapxem in South Goa will begin from February onwards. The attempts are on to ensure that the work begins in time,” Deepak Pauskar, Chairman, Goa State Infrastructure Development Corporation (GSIDC) said today. GSIDC is a nodal agency which will take up the work on this corridor.
He said that the work on first phase of mining corridor has been delayed as the iron ore leases which were around the road are yet to start due to several environmental issues.
Pauskar said that the before beginning the work on the State government will have to take clarity on whether the funding for the project would be through District Mineral Fund (a fund collected from mine owners) or State coffers or central government will fund it.
“There will be a meeting chaired by chief minister Manohar Parrikar which will be held shortly to have a clarity on this issue,” he said adding that all the clearances required for the project are in place.
“The forest department is also in the final stage of giving us the NOC as the road runs through their area,” Pauskar said.
In 2011, then Chief Minister Digambar Kamat had mooted the idea of having dedicated mining corridors in Goa.
However, it could not take shape as there were funding issues after the mining companies declined to finance it. Later, the iron ore extraction industry was hit hard by the ban in September 2012