Ministry of Mines administers the Offshore Areas Mineral (Development & Regulation) Act, 2002 [OAMDR Act]. The Act provides for development and regulation of mineral resources in the territorial waters, continental shelf, exclusive economic zone and other maritime zones of India and to provide for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.
The OAMDR Act has recently been amended w.e.f. 17.08.2023 which introduced transparent and non-discretionary auction process as the method of allocation of operating rights in the offshore areas. Also, provision has been made for establishing a trust to work for mining affected persons and for increasing exploration, providing relief upon occurrence of any disaster etc. The amendment also removed process of discretionary renewals and provided uniform lease period of fifty years, introduced composite licence, provided for area limits of various operating rights, provided for easy transfer of composite licence and production lease, etc.
Further, Ministry has identified some blocks in exclusive economic zone of India, i.e., beyond territorial water (12 nautical miles), for the minerals lime-mud & poly metallic nodules. In this regard, Ministry has sought comments/inputs from concerned Ministries/Department for availability of the offshore blocks for grant of operating rights to avoid any overlapping with the projects.