Colliery Control (Amendment) Rules, 2025

As per earlier provisions of Rule (9) of the Colliery Control Rules, 2004, a coal/ lignite mine owner was required to obtain prior permission from the Coal Controller’s Organisation (CCO) for opening a coal mine as well as for opening individual seams or sections of a seam.

Permission of CCO was also required for starting a coal/ lignite mine if a mine was not operational for a period of 180 days or more.

To eliminate procedural redundancies, accelerate coal production, and improve efficiency in the approval process, the requirement of obtaining prior opening permission from the CCO has now been dispensed with through amendment of Rule 9 of the Colliery Control Rules, 2004.

Under the amended provisions, the authority to approve mine/ seam opening permission has now been entrusted/ vested with the board of concerned coal company. This reform would streamline the approval process, while ensuring that compliance responsibility remains firmly with the company’s highest decision-making authority. This reform is expected to reduce upto 2 months in operationalization of mine.

As safeguard, it has been provided that (a) the Board of the concerned coal company can approve mine/ seam opening after the requisite approvals from Central/ State Government and statutory bodies has been obtained, (b) the company has to submit information about mine opening to CCO, and (c) for entities other than companies, such approval will continue to be through CCO.