Raipur, November 2: The Ministry of Coal hosted its Annual Star Rating Awards Ceremony for financial year 2024-25 in Raipur, Chhattisgarh, on Monday, honouring 50 coal mines with Five-Star Ratings, according to a Press Information Bureau (PIB) release. Union Minister of State for Coal and Mines Satish Chandra Dubey graced the ceremony and distributed the awards, in the presence of senior ministry officials, Coal India and its subsidiaries, NLC India, Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) and other industry stakeholders.

Source: PIB, Ministry of Coal (Nov 3, 2026), via India Education Diary

Northern Coalfields Limited (NCL) and NTPC secured the First Prize in the Opencast category, while Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) secured the First Prize in the Underground category, with Dubey presenting the award to SCCL Chairman and Managing Director Buddhaprakash Jyoti, PIB said. SCCL won five-star ratings for five mines — RKNT and RK-6 Incline in the Srirampur area, JVR OC-2 in Sattupalli, Khairigura OC in Bellampalli and RGOC-1 in Ramagundam-3 — Hyderabad Mail reported, adding that mines scoring above 91 out of 100 receive a five-star rating.

Western Coalfields Limited (WCL) received special appreciation for recording the highest number of five-star rated mines among Coal India subsidiaries, and NCL and Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL) were appreciated for consistently maintaining high performance in star rating evaluations and production, according to PIB. NCL's Krishnashila mine secured the first rank among opencast mines nationally, one of four NCL mines honoured, Indian PSU reported. South Eastern Coalfields Limited (SECL) won five-star awards for five of its mines, The S Bharat reported, while Tata Steel's West Bokaro Quarry South Eastern Block was recognised in the opencast category and its Jharia division's Bhelatand and Sijua collieries in the underground category, TownPost reported.

Under the Ministry's Star Rating policy, coal and lignite mines are evaluated against prescribed performance parameters and awarded ratings from five stars to zero, The S Bharat reported. Addressing the ceremony, Dubey said the programme promotes healthy competition, continuous self-improvement and the exchange of good practices, and called for wider participation in the FY 2025-26 round to advance safe, efficient and sustainable mining, PIB said. Winners and runners-up of the ministry's Hackathon on R&D 2026, on the theme 'NextGen AI for Smart Mining', were also honoured at the event.

The results underline how selective the top grade is: only 50 of the 382 mines assessed for 2024-25 reached five stars. The Ministry has invited the sector to aim higher in the 2025-26 assessment, whose participation Dubey urged mines to expand.