Speaking at the 21st standing committee meeting on safety in coal mines the minister said the committee would have representatives from the coal ministry, trade unions and mining engineers of the coal industry. He added that the committee would be asked to submit the report at the earliest.

Shanmugam said that though there was a marked improvement in accidents due to roof and side falls in coal mines, concerted efforts must continue to strive for much better performance in this area.

With a substantial increase in coal production envisaged in the future, mainly through mechanisation from deeper mines and deployment of bigger heavy earth moving machinery, the safety aspect had assumed greater importance, Shanmugam said.

In the last meeting of the committee, it was noted that a high number of casual accidents were seen in open-cast mines and an attitudinal change in the mindset of workers, supervisors was necessary. This called for re-orientation in training programmes.

The minister said that open-cast operations were generally safer than underground operations throughout the world. "We have to arrest the incident of high numbers of open-cast mining accident in the country and all concerned have to make efforts in earnest."

The ninth conference on safety in mines, held in February 2000, had recommended measures like provision of separate lane, properly fenced off from the haul road for pedestrians and two-wheelers in certain categories of open-cast mines. Training of persons engaged in surface operations specially of contractors workers to minimise accidents was also emphasised.

The ninth conference had also recommended introduction of techniques of risk management in mines for achieving signinficant reduction in accidents.

Shanmugam said that he hoped that coal companies would have taken initiative towards implementation of these recommendations. The committee also discussed filling up of all the statutory vacancies in the coal companies at the earliest.

With coal consumption for commercial energy production set to increase in the future due to rising population and expanding economy, Shanmugham said the vacancies should be filled up to meet the demand.

The meeting was attended by coal secretary VN Kaul, director general of mines safety SN Padhi and chairmen-cum-managing directors of coal companies.