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Sandstone in Rajasthan

Rajasthan is an important and largest sandstone producing state in India. The


sandstone deposits are mainly confined to the Vindhyan Super Group of rocks, which is
exposed over an area of about 34,000 sq.kms. covering parts of Dhaulpur, Bharatpur,
Sawai Madhopur, Tonk, Bundi, Jhalawar, Kota, Bhilwara and Chittorgarh districts in
eastern Rajasthan and scattered outcrops in Jodhpur, Magaur and Bikaner districts of
western desert plains.
The Vindhyan sandstone particularly of Bhander Group constitute great store
house of excellent stones because of their regular bedding, uniform grain size, splitable
nature and durability.
Sandstone has variety of uses such as roofing, flooring, paving, panelling, beans,
pillars, doors and window-sills, wall facings, fence-posts, milestone etc. it is also suitable
for carving and making perforated windows and jallis. This sandstone is being quarried
and used from centuries and number of historical buildings and monuments such as
Buddhist stupas of Sarnath, Red Fort of Delhi, Parliament house, President house,
National Museum, Chittor Palace, Jodhpur, etc. are made of this stone.
At present, sandstone is quarried at number of places in Chittorgarh, Bhilwara,
Bundi, Kota, Jhalawar, Tonk, Sawai Madhopur, Dhaulpur, Bharatpur, Jodhpur, Nagaur
and Bikaner districts and about 1892 leases of sandstone are sanctioned. In the year
1996-97 more than 47 lac tonnes of dimensional stone was quarried by which the state
government has earned a revenue of Rs. 18.6 crores by way of royalty and dead rent.
Geology
In the Vindhyan sequence of Rajasthan there are four sandstone horizons in lower
Vindhyan and ffive in upper Vindhyan. Contemporaneous to the upper Vindhyans of
eastern Rajasthan there are scattered sediments in western Rajasthan known as Marwar
Supergroup. The stratigraphic succession of sandstone is given below :
Marwar
Super-group

Nagaur Group
Bilara Group

Sandstone
Limestone

Splittable

Upper

Jodhpur Group
Bhander Group

Sandstone
Upper Bhander Sandstone

Splittable
Splittable
Splittable

Rewa Group

Lower Bhander Sandstone


Upper Rewa Sandstone

Vindhyan

Kaimur Group
Lower
Vindhyan
Semri Group

Lower Rewa Sandstone


Kaimur Sandstone
Jhalarapatan sandstone

Splittable

Tiron sandstone
Sawa sandstone
Khardeola sandstone

Districtwise description of the deposits in Rajasthan is given below :


Jhalawar District :
Sandstone in the form of slabs and pillars is mined on large scale in Jhalawar
district. There it is associated with two horizons (I) Jhalrapatan sandstone of Lower
Vindhyan and (ii) Lower Bhander sandstones of Upper Vindhyans. It is fone grained,
hard, compact and of different colours such as white to buff, pale grey, red, cream, brown
spotted.

The important mining areas are Loharia ki Dhani, Manak Chawak, Baghdar,

Bakaspura, Asnawar Bhanwrasa Bhalta etc. all belonging to Jhalrapatan sandstone. The
Bhander sandstone quarries exists near Ambala and Laxmipura.
The non flaggy sandstone is quarried and used as masonry stone at a number of
places around Halawar, Asnawar, Jhalrapatan, etc. In most of the flaggy sandstone areas,
masonry stone is found as overburden.
Kota District :
Two horizons of sandstone exists in Kota district.
(i)

Sandstone near Khimuch : Khimuch is an important locality from where white

sandstone is produced. The sandstone belongs to Jhalra patan sandstone of Semri Group.
The outcrops of sandstone starts from about 2 kms. north of Khimuch and continues due
south-east of Suket and pass in to Jhalawar district.
Most of the slabstone produced in the area is 4 cm to 10 cm thick. The thicker
size than this is called "Mukkasar" and used for roofing purpose. The white colour of
sandstone is quite regular. Since the sandstone is very hard as such it takes polish with
great difficulty but if once polished it remains for a very long period
The area falls on the state highway No.1 between villages Suket and Dhabadeh.
Morak railway station is about 2 kms, away from the main quarries.

(ii)

Red Sandstone :

The important quarries are concentrated near Borawas,

Deoli, Kasar,Mandana, Kanwas, Badora, Kishanganj villages. The rock formation belong
to lower Bhander group of upper Vindhyans. The flaggy sandstone exposed in the
quarries are well jointed and these joints help in developing quarries and taking out slabs
easily. The formations are almost flat in all the areas.
Most of the sandstone produced from these areas is varying in thickness from 3
cm to 8 cm. The colour is reddish brown to fawn colour.
Bundi District :
The lower Bhander sandstone of Vidhyan Supergroup in Bundi distric thas given
good splittable sandstone horizons.

There are known working quaries around

Dhaneshwara, Dab, Budhpura, Lambakho, Naroli, Patopara, Rajpura, Gudhia etc. the
sandstone is pinkish to brownish in colour, fine to medium grained, jointed and well
bedded. The dips are almost flat.
Bhilwara District :
Large expanse of the upper Bhander sandstone is exposed around Menal in the
south-western corner to Bundi in NNE. Bijolia is a small town located about the middle
of it and quarries have developed all around those places with greater concentration
towards the south and west. The sandstone is purple, reddish brown with pale white
bands is compact, massive and having quadrangular joints.

The sandstone is quarried

at number of places, important being Bijolia, Barisal, Nava Nagar, Banio-Ka-Talab.


Karauli District :
Karauli sandstone is an excellent building stone as it is amenable to receive good
polish and intricate carving meant for lattices and arches. The sandstone occurs in the
form of hill range crossing across the district. Most of the quarries are situated in nearby
areas of Karauli and Sapotra tehsils.
The sandstone is fine to medium in grain size, compact and moderately hard and
has good splitting property by which almost smooth surface bearing slab of 5 to 10 cm,
thickness can be obtained.
Recently Mines & Geology Department has identified five splittable sandstone
blocks viz. Bhauapura _Ratiapura (10 sq.km), Kasara (2.88 sq.km), Chobe-Ki-Guwari
(4.88 Sq.km.), Mokanpura Berda (2 sq. km) and Bhakri (5 sq.km0 of about 25 sq.km total

area. These are 10 to 40 km away from Karauli town and well connected with tar road.
After drilling up to 15 mts. depth it has been proved that 2 to 3 splittable sandstone zones
of about 3 m thickness occur below 1 to 2 m depth from the surface, with 2 to 4 m.
intervals between each successive zones. Sandstone is red and buff in colour, fine
grained and bedded in nature. These blocks are outside forest and leasehold areas.
Important sandstone mining localities are Bhadupura and Madibhat in Sapotra
tehsil where as Parasari, Makanpura, Barda, Bhanpura and Maon villages are in Karauli
tehsil, other localities are Godi-Ka-Gaon, Moder, Langare, Guwadi, Dewari Piparan,
Makori, Karshai, Kashare, Sewali of Karauli tehsil; Chamble ki Guwadi, Lohare in
Sapotra tehsil. Besides in Rajoli, Kamalpura village of Toda-Bhim, Bapoti, Mangrol and
Tai hill of Sapotra tehsil, sandstone is quarried for mill stone because of its greater
hardness and massiveness.
Dhaulpur District :
The upper Bhander sandstone of Vindhyan

Super group is extensively spread

over the district. This sandstone is pinkish and buff white in colour. It is medium
grained with siliceous and ferruginous as cementing material. This sandstone is widely
used as decorative stone. The famous historical building like Rashtrapati Bhawan, Lal
Quila (Ref fort), Sansad Bhawan and Fatehpur Sikri are made up of Dhaulpur sandstone.
Mostly in building it is used for wall cladding. The main localities are near village
Chilachand, Khushalpura, Tajpura, Khidarpura, Chandpur, Vasrani, Bijouli, Barouli,
Kharagpura and Baseri, etc.
Bharatpur District :
Sandstone of Vindhyan are is extensively mined in Bharatpur district. Splittable
sandstone is available near village Bansi Paharpur, Bandh Baretha, Turtipura, Tarsuman,
Singhwali, etc. Sandstone varioes in colour from buff-red to pink and cremish pink at
places spotted pink is also seen.

Jodhpur District :
Jodhpur sandstone belongs to Jodhpur Group. The formation has been designated
as Sonia formation and Girbhakar formation. Sandstone is quarried for masonary stone,

slabs and aslets. It is buff-pink to grey, medium to coarse grained in nature and is well
sorted. Important mining

areas of sandstone are located near Soorsagar Fidusar

Balsamand, Mandore,Keru,Badli,Balesar,Setrawa, Kali-Nhuri, Bari, Ghoda ghati.


Survey for new sandstone areas has been carried out by department from time to time.
The new areas of sandstone in Keru-Badli were opened up after department survey by
drilling to see the continuity and depth. Drilling for sandstone was carried out near
Surpura and Pichyaka and splittable zones were identified from 10 to 13 mts. depth.
Nagaur District :
Vindhyan sandstone is exploited for various types of building material at Nagaur,
Khatu and in Ladnu areas. The Khatu sandstone is especially carved into fine window
screens with geometrically perforated 'Jallis'.

The Nagaur, Harsolao and Ladnu

sandstones are quarried and used as masonary stones. The Harsolao sandstones also
used to prepare the Ghati.
Chittorgarh District :
The splittable sandstone belonging to Bundi hill formation of Middle Bhander
Group occurs in Menal, Kokra, Rawarda, Gopalpura, Umar and Dharola area of Begun
tehsil. This sandstone is pink to reddish brown and Khaki in colour, fine to medium
grained, compact and ferruginous in nature. Generally 0.50 to 1.50 metre thick splittable
zone is occurring in the area under a 0.75 to 1.50 m thick overburden of non-splittable
sandstone locally known as 'tola'.
Sl. No.

District

No.of
leases/Q.L

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Sl. No

Jhalarwar
Kota
Bundi
Bhilwara
Karauli
District

6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

Dhaulpur
Bharatpur
Jodhpur
Jaisalmer
Bikaner

152
109
1286
1
7319
103
No. of
Lease/Q.L
71
65
64 10751
39
-

Production
(thous.
tonnes)
20.38
27.92
1687.21
801.00
890.78
Production
(thous.tonnes)
845.61
32.80
336.06
22.69
59.30

Revenue
(thous. Rs.)
1619.86
1119.95
55440.27
22500.00
26723.61
Revenue
(thous. Rs.)
13670.68
5330.26
55279.08
615.71
215.22

11.
12.

Barmer
Chittorgarh
Total

2
274
1892/18344

57.09
4780.84

3772.86
1816287.50

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