Thar Desert scale. Barmer district is in the news due to its large oil basin. The British exploration company Cairn Energy started production of oil on a large scale. Mangala, Bhagyam and Aishwariya are the major oil fields in the district. This is India's biggest oil discovery in 22 years. This promises to transform the local economy, which has long suffered from the harshness of the desert. The Government of India initiated departmental exploration for oil in 1955-56 in the Jaisalmer area, Oil India Limited's discovered natural gas in 1988 in the Jaisalmer basin. Also known for their fine leather messenger bags
Thar Link Express Thar Link Express Thar Link Express () is the Indian portion of the international passenger train Thar Express operated weekly by Indian Railway using its own coaches and locomotives, between Jodhpur and Munabao. Passengers from Munabao then clear customs and are transported to across the border to Zero Point station where the Thar Express takes passengers to Karachi, Pakistan. The track between Barmer, forming part of the then Jodhpur princely State, and Shadi Palli in Sindh, on which the current Thar Link Express runs, was opened in December 1900 to run the Sind Mail, which ran between Bombay and Karachi