Godda district

Godda is one of the districts of Jharkhand state, India. "Godda" lies in the northeastern part of Jharkhand state, India. Godda town is the headquarters of Godda district. The geographical area now comprising Godda district was formerly part of Santhal Parganas.

The area of the district is 210 km², with a population of around 861,000. The district is without any rail link, the nearest railway station being Barahat. Agriculture is the main economic activity of the people, and major crops are paddy, wheat and maize.

Godda is the land of a tribe called Sathals and is mostly famous for the Rajmahal Coalfields in Lalmatia. Its and integral part of Jharkhand and known for its hills and small forests. The mine present here is an integral part of ECL coalfields and is among the biggest of its own in whole Asia. Mahagama, Pathargama, Hansdiha, Lalmatia are some popular place.

Godda is not only a land of tribes, the local inhabitants also include the non tribal and urban people. Until late 80's godda was full of forests and was a remote place far from science and technology and was living in a dark age as other districts of Jharkhand. The entire scenario changed after coal was first discovered under the rajmahal hills in abundance by a team of Geological Survey of India. Central Mine Planning and Design Intitute Ltd conducted a detailed survey of the area. The Rajmahal Opencast Coal mine project was conceived in early 1980s, initially to supply coal to Farakka Super Thermal Power Project of NTPC, with an initial annual capacity of 5 Million tonne. For expansion of this coal mine project to 10.5 million tonne per annum, an agreement was signed between Coal India Limited and Canadian Commercial Corporation in January 1989 where MET-CHEM Canada Inc. was designated as the Canadian Executing Agency for implementing the project. The Project has been completed in July 1994 and presently being run by Eastern Coalfileds Limited personnel. Presently this mine is producing 11.5 million tonne coal per annum. This is being expanded further to 17 million tonne.

Two more mine opencast coal mine of Eastern Coalfields Limited are coming in Godda district, (1) Chuperbhita opencast coal mine project ( capacity - 4 million tonne) and (2) Hurra 'C' opencast coal mine project (capacity - 3 million tonne).

ECL has its huge base in Urjanagar a govt colony inhabited by 10 thousand people. Famous Shakti pith Maa Yogini is just nearby Pathargama.