Two stone industry institutes to come up in Gujarat

The Gujarat government plans to set up two training institutes in Ambaji and Dhrangadhra to ensure adequate supply of skilled manpower for the stone industry. Saurabh Patel, minister of state, industries and mines said it was time for the state to capitalise on the opportunities in the stone industry.

“India is among the largest producer of raw stone materials. The government will set up two training institutes to provide skilled manpower for the industry,” he said.

He was speaking at the international conference on “Opportunities for Stone Industry in Gujarat”, organised by Gujarat Mineral Development Corporation Ltd (GMDC) in association with FICCI and CDOS.

K Vikram Rastogi, an industry player, who will be managing the institute, said, “We plan to offer four courses. They will range from a 1-week course on stone art orientation to a 1-year course on stone enterprise development.” He said the course will begin from the first week of Feb 2011. 

“We have got 1,200 registration so far,” he said.
Rastogi said the course can be pursued by anybody who has cleared class 10. "No fee will be charged and students will be provided food, accommodation and Rs100 per day during the training," he said.
Globally, China is the biggest player in the stone industry which includes marbles, granites among others, followed by Italy and Brazil. India comes fourth.
Rastogi said India ranks number one in export of raw granite while in processed granite stones it is ranked fourth.  Exports of the country are to the tune of Rs10,000 crore per annum.
Vinay Vyasa, commissioner, geology and mining of the Gujarat government said the state has approximate reserves of 2,500 million tonne of granite, 260 million tonne of marble and 12,000 million tonne of limestone.