Annual Report,2009 - Directorate General of Mines Safety

DGMS Annual Report, 2009
work persons, the drivers/operators does not have a clear view of the rear side of
equipment. It is a practice in mines that the operator takes the assistance of a spotter
while reversing. The spotters are exposed to danger of being crushed by equipment.
The audio visual alarm warning at times may not provide sufficient time for the
spotter and others to escape from the site and incidents/accidents takes place.
To avoid above kind of situations, it is strongly recommended that REAR VISION
SYSTEM may be installed in the equipment especially in dumper/tippers. The system
shall be provided with a monitor which can be installed inside the cabin of the
operator and an automatic switch on the reverse gear actuates ultra low light camera
with sufficient number of infra-red LEDS installed at rear of the vehicle which
provide picture in nearly pitch dark and poor weather conditions and a clear and sharp
picture is displayed on the monitor. The camera shall be housed in a fully water proof
case which is shock and vibration resistance and suitable for high pressure washing.
The two components shall be connected by a suitable detachable cable with water
proof joints.
It may be noted that the above provisions is in addition to audio visual alarm and rear
view mirrors which is already provided with the equipments/
It is recommended that in the interest of safety, necessary action shall be taken to
provide Rear Vision System in equipments so as to eliminate the chances of accidents
while reversing.
No. DGMS (Tech)/Circular No./ 13 Dhanbad, Dated – 17.11. 2009
To,
Owner/Agent/Manager of Underground Coal Mines.
Sub:- Telemonitoring System and their features for use in Underground Coal
Mines.
Telemonitoring System for continuous monitoring of inflammable/toxic gases, air
velocity, etc., are not new to the underground coal mines of the country. Such systems
have been in use in some of the highly mechanized underground coal mines with
history of high gassiness and proneness to spontaneous heating. This scenario is
however slowly changing and more and more such systems are now being introduced
in all such mines as an effective means to detecting inflammable/noxious gases and
spontaneous heating in nascent stages, thereby enabling suitable mitigating measures
to ward of likely disasters.
However, recent inspections of a large number of such installations by the officers of
this Directorate revealed the dismal state of affairs as regards their installation and
maintenance. Invariably, the system were found to be either faulty of non-working,
thereby defeating the very purpose of their installation in difficult working situations.
It was also revealed that there was no reliable mechanism to ensure the health of such
installed systems on a long-term basis. The gravity of the situation was intense
because of the working of such faulty system. In mines with a potential to give
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