Kolkata/Birbhum, Feb 6 (Reporter) The Basalt mining or primary cleaning of the land for coal mining began on Thursday at the massive Deucha-Pachami coal mine in West Bengal's Birbhum district, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has announced. Banerjee announced on the opening day of the 8th Bengal Global Business Summit on Wednesday the start of mining work (basalt) on 326 acres of land at the proposed Deucha-Pachami ( Birbhum) in the presence of Indian top industrial magnets like Mukesh Ambani, Sajjan Jindal and foreign delegates at BGBS, which concluded on Thursday. Birbhum district Magistrate Bidhan Roy told reporters on the field that hundreds of local people have assembled to register their names for jobs in different categories for the preliminary mining works. He said the land earmarked is a vested land owned by the government and there is no encroachment of arable land, forest land, and any water body in the demarcated areas. The area is inhabited by tribal people and every family residing there would get priority for jobs in various natures. Das said in the first phase there will be underground coal mining. A local youth said they were happy to have such a project which will fetch them job opportunities. West Bengal Chief Minister said the coal belt is the second largest coal field in the world as around 1,240 million tonnes of coal and 675 MT of basalt are expected to be mined. She said all environmental clearances and other clearances had been obtained for mining. The Chief Minister said an agency was handed the job through a national tender, and it has already set up the required infrastructure for mining basalt...////...