Western Coalfields undertakes a mine tourism project near Nagpur

Under this project, the Coal India subsidiary has created an eco-park on 15 acres of land

In a first of its kind initiative in India, Coal India has embarked on a project to showcase the minimal environmental impact and the eco-friendlessness of mining operations by premiering mine tourism for the public.

Under this project, the company's subsidiary, Western Coalfields Ltd (WCL) has created an eco-park on 15 acres of land which lies between the Saoner and Gondegaon mines near Nagpur in Maharashtra and is offering a free conducted tour of two coal mines for the public.

"People normally think and believe things to be polluted, unsafe and ecologically hazardous in coal mining areas and we wanted to change this perception of the people by developing barren land which lies between two mines into a spot of tourist interest", chairman and managing director of WCL, R R Mishra said.

Christened Eco Mine Tourism, the tour, open for the public on weekdays as well as weekends, include a peek into how mining operations are carried in an opencast as well as underground mine besides spending time in the eco-park.

While people are allowed to see the Gondegaon opencast mine from a viewpoint, one needs a medical clearance to enter the underground mine at Saoner to get a feel about a miner's wok-day.

"We show everything what is going to happen in an underground mine - how a miner goes inside through a man-rider, what is the internal scene inside an underground mine and all on video. If one wants to go inside after obtaining the necessary clearances, we'll provide the entire dress needed to go inside the mines too", Mishra said.

The moves comes in wake of Arun Jaitley, the union finance minister doubling the cess tax on coal in the last Union Budget where he modified the Clean Environmental cess on coal into Clean Energy cess and increased it from Rs 200 to Rs 400. This, while power and coal minister Piyush Goyal spoke about India's seriousness about reducing the carbon footprint and use alternate modes of energy at the 2015 UN climate change conference in Paris.

India's present heavy dependence on thermal power for its energy needs makes the country rely on securing its coal supplies as well.

The Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC) has also approached the Miniratna company to include mine tourism in their circuit. The "paid" MTDC tour will commence later this month.

The eco-park, which lies in the catchment area of the mines has been conceived, planned and built with in-house material at a Rs 60,00,000 investment has already been pulling crowds.

Mishra is now thinking of emulating the same model in its Pench-Kanhan mines in Madhya Pradesh.

"But first, we'll see the response in the current Eco Mine Tourism project and based on that, we'll go for Madhya Pradesh", he added.

Showcasing of real mines to the public and such ecological endeavors are common in Australia, USA, Canada, Finland, Germany, Norway, Japan, Chile, Bolivia and several other countries but new in India.