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, Boodi, Jhalawar, Kota, Bhilwara and Chittorgarh
districts in eastern Rajasthan and scattered outcrops in Jodhpur, N agaur 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,
splittable nature and durability.
Sandstone has variety of uses such as roofing, flooring, paving, panelling,
beams, pillars, doors and window-sills, wall facings, fence-posts, milestone etc. It is
also suitable for carving and making perforated windows and jallis. This sand stone
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,
Boodi, 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 Vmdhyan and five in upper Vindhyan. Contemporaneous to the upper Vindyans
of eastern Rajasthan there are scattered sediments in western Rajasthan known as
Marwar Supergroup. The stratigraphic succession of sandstone is given below:
Marwar
Nagaur Group
Sandstone
Supergroup
Bilara Group
Jodhpur Group
Limestone
Upper Vindhyan
Lower Vindhyan
Sand stone
Splittable
Splittable
Bhander group
Upper Bhander sandstone Splittable
Lower Bhander sandstone Splittable
Rewa Group
Upper Rewa Sandstone
Lower Rewa Sandstone
Kaimur Group
Kaimur Sandstone
SemriGroup
Jhalarapatan sandstone
Tiron sandstone
Splittable
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 fine 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 Chawk,
Bagdhar, 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 massonary stone at number
of places around Jhalawar, Asnawar, Jhalrapatan etc. In most of the flaggy sandstone
areas, masonary 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 sand stone belongs to Jhalra patan sandstone of
Semri Group. The outcrops of sandstone starts from about 2kms. 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 4cm to 10cm. 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 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 3cm.
to 8cm. The colour is reddish brown to fawn colour.
Bundi District:
The lower Bhander sandstone of Vidhyan Supergroup in Bundi district has
given good splittable sandstone horizons. There are known working quarries 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 and 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 sqkm.) Kasara (2.88 Sqkm.) Chobe
ki Guwari (4.88 sqkm.) Mokanpura Berda (2 sqkm.) and Bhakri (5 sqkm.) of about
25 sqkm. total area. These are 10 to 40 km. away from Karauli town and well
connected with tar road.
After drilling up to 15mts. depth it has been proved that 2 to 3 splittable sandstone
zones of about 3m thickness occur below 1 to 2m depth from the surface, with 2 to
4m. 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 Tali 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 Supergroup is extensively spread
over the district. This sandstone is pinkish and buff white in colour. It is medium
grained with silliceous and ferrugineous as cementing material. This sandstone is
widely used as decorative stone. The famous historical building like Rashtrapati
Bhawan, Lal Quila (Red fort), Sansad Bhawan and Fatehpur Sikri are made up of
Dhaulpur sandstone. Mostly in building it is used for wall clading. The main localities
are near village Chilachand, Khushalpura, Tajpura, Khidarpura, Chandpur, Vasrani,
Bijouli, Barouli, Kharagpura and Baseri etc.
Bharatpur District:
Sandstone of Vindhyan age is extensively mined in Bharatpur district.
Splittable sandstone is available near village Bansi Paharpur, Bandh Baretha,
Turtipura, Tarsuman, Singhwali etc. Sandstone varies in colour from buff-red to pink
and creamish 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-Bhuri
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 departmant survey by srilling to see the continuity and depth. Drilling for
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 ferrugineous in nature. Generally 0.50 to 1.50 metre
thick splittable zone is occuring in the area under a 0.75 to 1.50m. thick overburden of
non splittable sand stone locally known as "tola".