Action Plan for better Coal mine safety by next month

Kolkata, Sept 23 (UNI) The Coal Ministry is contemplating to prepare an Action plan by next month suggesting ways to prevent underground mine disasters and ensure better safety norms for the hapless miners.

The five member committee, set up under the Charimanship of Union minister of state for coal D Narayan Rao, is expected to complete its report by next month after considering the entire security aspect of underground mining with other experts and suggest a possible fool proof measure to prevent recurrence of any such incident.

Besides Mr Rao, the Chairman of Coal India, Bharat Coking Coal Limited and the Eastern Coalfields Limited and the Director General of Mine Safety are the members of the committee which was constituted about two months ago in the wake of an underground mining disaster in Jharkhand killing about 25 labourers.

Speaking to newsmen here today more about the government plan to prevent increasing mining accidents in different parts of the country, Coal India Chairman Sashi Kumar said,however,in spite of large scale mechanisation and taking other safety measures it was virtually impossible to completely prevent disasters during underground mininig.

"No where in the world, how developed they might be, underground mining accident could be wiped out totally," Mr Kumar said and blamed certain aspects of nature like the presence of unknown gas even in moderate depth and largescale human error as the prime reasons behind such unfortunate incidents.

Asked about the utility of framing a new Action plan in this backdrop Mr Kumar, flanked by his counterparts in the BCCL and ECL, said no stones were being left unturned to ensure implementation of strict safety norms for all those working in the Indian mining industry. He, however, refused to disclose more about the committee's recommendation about the action plan saying it would be released by next month.

They were speaking to newsmen after participating in a day long workshop on "Turnaround stories of Coal Companies and Futurwe Strategies",organised under the aegis of the Mining, Geological and Metallurgical Institute of India.

About Coal India's production target in the wake of its increasing demand from the power and enery sectors, Mr Kumar said a total amount of 343 million tonnes of coking and non-coking coal were produced last year, while during the current fiscal they had increased the target by 20 million tonnes to more to 363 million tonnes.

"By 2011-12 we propose to touch the 530 million tonnes mark against the country's total demand for around 620 million tonnes",Mr Kumar said adding that the rest of the demand would be met from other sources.

"In terms of investment we are spending about Rs 3,000 crores every year for reaching the targetted production," the Coal India Chairman informed replying to another query.

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