Singapore company plans to conduct airborne survey of India

A Singapore-based geology and oil company plans to make a presentation to the Indian governement on doing an airborne remote-sensing geophysical survey of the country to gather data for resource exploitation.
The survey could help increase the potential of mineral resources in the country, said Sudipto N Mukerji, business development director at McPhar International, an airborne survey company of Neterwala Group.
"I think this is something the new government will look at," he told PTI at the Asia Oil Week conference here.
"India has huge mineral resources and an airborne survey can play a big part in mapping the potential basins," he said.

"We are planning to make presentation and apprise the PMO (Prime Minister's office) that this is what needs to be done," he said without indicating any schedule.
"If the survey is done, there is a potential of changing the resource map of India," he added.

A survey on India, covering both onshore and offshore areas, would make the information attractive for investors to participate in exploiting resources in the country, he said.
Though the government has given Geological Survey of India a mandate to do the survey, nothing much has yet been done, according to Mukerji, who estimates that the survey would take between five years and 10 years and cost USD 300 million to USD 400 million.

McPhar has already held several discussions with Defence Ministry on doing the survey.
The company has explained the benefit of doing a national survey to the Defence Ministry, pointing out the huge potential of finding mineral resources including hydrocarbons, gems, uranium and underground water, Mukerji said.
McPhar, formed in 2010 and registered in Singapore in 2012, is involved in a number of projects including a survey for minerals in Chhattisgarh for a private but major Indian company.