Lok Sabha Question No. 5497 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2017-04-06
Subject: Nationwide Safety Survey for Coal Mines
Ministry: COAL
Asked by: C. MAHENDRAN

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 5497 TO BE ANSWERED ON 6 TH  APRIL, 2017

## Nationwide Safety Survey for Coal Mines

## 5497. SHRI C. MAHENDRAN:

Will the Minister of COAL be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the Government has called for a nationwide safety survey for the country's coal mines;
- (b) if so, the details thereof and the reasons therefor;
- (c) whether the average number of serious injuries per metric tonne of coal mined has increased/decreased and if so, the details thereof;
- (d) whether the coal mining fatality figures in the country are better than those in other countries of the world; and
- (e) if so, the details thereof

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) IN THE MINISTRY OF COAL, POWER,  NEW  AND  RENEWABLEE  ENERGY  AND  MINES  (SHRI  PIYUSH GOYAL)

(a)&(b): Yes Madam. The Government has called for Safety Audit in all coal mines of Coal India Limited (CIL). The reason for conducting Safety Audit of mines is to assess whether all operations of the mine are being carried out safely as per provisions of statute and to identify deficiencies thereof, if any, in order to rectify the same for improving safety standard of the mines.

Accordingly,  multi-disciplinary  inter-company  teams  have  been  formed  for  conducting  Safety Audit of all mines of CIL. Safety Audit has already been conducted in 83.5% of all mines of CIL as per the priority and Safety Audit of remaining mines will be completed shortly.

- (c): As per information received from Directorate General of Mines Safety (DGMS), the average number of serious injuries per metric ton of coal  has decreased. The details are shown below.

|   Year |   No. of Serious injuries* |   Output in metric tone |   Rate of serious injuries per metric ton |
|--------|----------------------------|-------------------------|-------------------------------------------|
|   2012 |                        548 |                  617969 |                                      0.89 |
|   2013 |                        468 |                  589513 |                                      0.79 |
|   2014 |                        394 |                  650596 |                                      0.61 |
|   2015 |                        297 |                  650596 |                                      0.46 |
|   2016 |                        267 |                  650596 |                                      0.41 |
|   2017 |                         21 |                  650596 |                                      0.03 |

*Include injuries of fatal accident. Data up to 28.02.2017. Data for the year 2015, 2016 & 2017 are provisional.

(d)&(e): The fatality figures of Coal India Ltd (CIL) is better than China, which is No.1. Coal producing  Country  in  the  World.  However,  compared  to  other  countries  like  USA,  Australia, there is scope to improve the safety in Indian coal mines.

| Country / Company   | Parameters             |     2010 |     2011 |     2012 |    2013 |     2014 |     2015 |     Total |
|---------------------|------------------------|----------|----------|----------|---------|----------|----------|-----------|
| CIL                 | Fatality               |   94     |   52     |   60     |   59    |   45     |   38     |   348     |
| CIL                 | Production in Mte.     |  431     |  436     |  452     |  462    |  494     |  525     |  2800     |
| CIL                 | Fatality Rate per MTe. |    0.22  |    0.12  |    0.13  |    0.13 |    0.09  |    0.07  |     0.12  |
| USA                 | Fatality               |   48     |   20     |   20     |   20    |   16     |   11     |   135     |
| USA                 | Production in Mte.     |  932     | 1004     |  935     |  983    |  996     |  891     |  5741     |
| USA                 | Fatality Rate per MTe. |    0.05  |    0.02  |    0.02  |    0.02 |    0.02  |    0.01  |     0.02  |
| China               | Fatality               | 2433     | 1973     | 1384     | 1049    |  931     |  596     |  8366     |
| China               | Production in Mte.     | 3162     | 3471     | 3549     | 3561    | 3800     | 3680     | 21223     |
| China               | Fatality Rate per MTe. |    0.77  |    0.57  |    0.39  |    0.29 |    0.25  |    0.16  |     0.39  |
| Australia           | Fatality               |    1     |    1     |    2     |    0    |    4     |    1     |     9     |
| Australia           | Production in Mte.     |  353     |  414     |  421     |  459    |  496     |  518.4   |  2661.4   |
| Australia           | Fatality Rate per MTe. |    0.003 |    0.002 |    0.005 |    0    |    0.008 |    0.002 |     0.003 |

## # Information Sources:

1. Mine Safety & Health Administration, USA
2. State Administration of Work Safety (SAWS), China.
3. Mining Accident database, Australia.
4. World Coal Association.
5. US-Energy Information Administration
6. Reuters.

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