Godda is mostly famous for the
Rajmahal coalfield in
Lalmatia. It is an integral part of
Jharkhand and is known for its hills and small forests. The mine present here is an integral part of ECL coalfields and is among the biggest in whole Asia. Until the late 1980s 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 in abundance under the Rajmahal Hills by a team of the
Geological Survey of India. Central Mine Planning and Design Institute 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 was completed in July 1994 and is being run by Eastern Coalfileds Limited personnel. This mine is producing 11.5 million tonne coal per annum. This is being expanded further to 17 million tonne. Two more opencast coal mine of Eastern Coalfields Limited are coming in Godda district, Chuperbhita opencast coal mine project (capacity - 4 million tonne) and Hurra 'C' opencast coal mine project (capacity - 3 million tonne). The main economic activity of the people is
agriculture, and major crops are
paddy,
wheat and
maize. The district is with rail link of
Godda railway station. In 2006 the Indian government named Godda one of the country's 250
most backward districts (out of a total of
640). ==Politics==