The zonal and state level mine safety awards, for the best mines and best employees of mines in various trades, would be presented during the valediction of the Mine Safety Week here this weekend.
Over 100 prizes are to be given away during the two-day event hosted by the Tamil Nadu and Kerala Mines Safety Association and Dalmia Cements Limited, under the aegis of the Directorate General of Mines Safety, said J. V. Gungune, Executive Director, Dalmia Cements Limited, addressing a press conference here on Friday.
During the week, competitions for various categories of employees such as heavy equipment operator, auto electrician, blaster and first aid teams were being held. The competitions were held through role play under simulated situations. Apart from this, competitions on safety slogans and poster making were also conducted. The objective of the celebration was to inculcate safety culture among mine workers and at the end of the observation, the best safety practices would be adopted by the mines, Mr. Gungune said. It helped improve the mine safety record through tighter measures, he added.
The Mines Safety Week observation commenced in Chennai zone on August 17 and since then the event was observed for a week in each of the other four zones in Tamil Nadu – Tirunelveli, Salem, Neyveli and Tiruchi.
Experts from the field, conducted inspections of the mines to rate them in terms of working conditions, haul road maintenance, mine lighting and handling and storage of explosives. The final rankings were to be announced by the inspection teams at Tiruchi.
Tiruchi zone had 50 mines, including those of Dalmia Cement, Madras Cement, Grasim Cement, India Cement, Chettinad Cement and TANCEM, said V. Karthikeyan, Senior General Manager (Mines), Dalmia Cements.
The two-day event at Tiruchi would be attended by S. J. Sibal, Director General of Mines Safety and over 800 participants from the mining fraternity of Tamil Nadu, Mr. Karthikeyan said.
Addressing a query, Mr. Gungune disclosed that the new plant of Dalmia Cements coming up at Ariyalur would be operational by mid October. About 500 acres of limestone mining area had been acquired for the plant with a capacity of 2.25 million tonnes. An additional 300 acres of mining area had also been identified at Karur for the plant.
