A DGMS proximity warning system is not an RFID mandate. DGMS (Tech) Circular No. 06 of 2020 sets minimum requirements for a vehicle-mounted proximity warning device (PWD) on dumpers and tippers in opencast mines, and names no technology: the device must detect people, vehicles and obstacles by itself. RFID’s real job in mine safety is elsewhere: underground personnel tracking under the Coal Mines Regulations 2017, and identifying people and machines at surface read points.
Two different DGMS problems that tenders blur together
The first is collision on opencast haul roads. G.S.R. 987(E) of 1 October 2018, issued under regulation 216(2) of CMR 2017, makes a proximity warning device mandatory on dumpers, tippers and trucks in coal mines, alongside other safety devices required on all heavy earth-moving machinery (HEMM).
The second is underground headcount. CMR 2017 regulation 37(5)(c) requires a system so that the names of everyone employed below ground are “accurately known at any time, as well as their probable location”.
DGMS (Tech)(SOMA) Circular No. 03 of 21 August 2024, addressed to opencast coal mines (in DGMS’s 2018–2024 circulars compilation), attributes 36% of the fatal accidents it analysed for 2023 to dumpers, tippers, trucks and similar vehicles, and names the lack of a proper proximity warning or anti-collision device as one avoidable cause.
What Circular 06 of 2020 specifies for a proximity warning device
Dated 27 February 2020, the circular (in DGMS’s 2018–2024 compilation) is addressed to coal and metalliferous mines and to OEMs. Its enclosure sets minimum levels, not ceilings, for 14 features in opencast mines; section 14, the PWD, applies to dumpers and tipper trucks:
- Architecture. Sensors of one or more technologies, plus a control unit and a warning unit; at least one sensor front and one rear (14.1.2).
- Detection. The device itself detects static and moving objects, vehicles and people in a virtual target area while the vehicle moves (14.1.1), with an adjustable audio-visual warning for people and the lowest-height light motor vehicle used in the mine (14.1.3).
- Target areas. Front: vehicle width plus 0.5 m each side, as long as the IS 16479 maximum stopping distance, calculated dynamically from speed on a 6.25% (1 in 16) slope including brake and operator response time. Rear: the same width, at least the vehicle’s length, from the rear-axle centreline.
- Alarms and logging (14.1.7). No detection beyond the target width; left, right or centre indication; automatic audio cut-off; warnings logged with time stamps, and location where feasible, for the past 96 operating hours.
- Testing (14.1.8), at a government-approved or NABL-accredited test house outside the manufacturer’s facility:
- Electrical: IEC 61000-4-5:2014 surge; IEC 61000-4-6:2013 conducted RF immunity.
- Environmental: JSS 55555 vibration (8–500 Hz); IS 9000 damp heat (40 °C, 95% RH, 16 h), cold (−10 °C), dry heat (+70 °C), rapid temperature cycling.
- Ingress: IP66.
- Radio (14.1.9). WPC rules apply where relevant.
DGMS has since issued Circulars 7/2025 and 5/2026 (below); check with DGMS for later changes.
IS 17055 (Part 6) and DGMS Circular No. 7 of 2025
BIS lists IS 17055 (Part 6):2021, the earth-moving machinery safety standard for dumpers, with one amendment. Circular 06/2020 came before it and does not cite it.
DGMS (Tech) Circular No. 7 of 2025 of 20 November 2025, addressed to opencast mines and OEMs, now directs that safety systems on wheeled trackless transport machinery follow Amendment 1 (2024) to IS 17055 (Part 6) together with Circular 06/2020, and calls for wider use of proximity warning devices under that amendment. We have not read the amendment, so ask the OEM for test reports against it and against clause 14 of Circular 06/2020.
Can a tag-based system be the proximity warning device?
The circular allows any sensing technology or combination, but a tag layer of passive RFID or BLE badges sees only what carries a tag: not a parked light vehicle, a static obstacle, an unbadged visitor, or a worker whose BLE badge battery has run flat, all of which clauses 14.1.1 and 14.1.3 expect the device to detect.
By our reading, not a DGMS ruling, a tag layer can supplement a sensor-based PWD but cannot replace it; we have not seen DGMS accept a tag-only system.
Underground personnel tracking under CMR 2017
Three instruments shape how a mine meets regulation 37(5)(c):
- Regulation 40(3). Names are recorded before and after each shift, and each time a person goes below ground or returns, in the register kept under section 48(4) of the Mines Act, 1952, which regulation 40(3) still names. An RFID attendance system can record names only if the Chief Inspector has approved it, and its printed output still goes into the register or a format the Chief Inspector specifies. We have not found a published list of approved systems.
- Regulations 177(1) and 52(d)–(e). Everyone below ground carries a lamp issued and returned at the lamp room, already the check-out and check-in point. A card or wristband read at its window leaves the DGMS-approved cap lamp alone; whether a tag fixed to the lamp affects its approval is for the approval holder and DGMS.
- Circular 08/2020. Conference recommendations, not gazette notifications: biometric attendance against a digitised Form-A register, smart digital tokens carrying each person’s Form-A entry, and a Machinery Reference Number (MRN) for every deployed machine.
Metal mines fall under the Metalliferous Mines Regulations (1961 text linked); ask DGMS which duty and version apply there.
The Mines Act, 1952 was repealed when the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020 took effect on 21 November 2025. Section 143(3) of the Code keeps regulations and notifications made under the old Act, including CMR 2017, G.S.R. 987(E) and G.S.R. 673(E), in force to the extent they are not contrary to the Code until the Central Government repeals them.
The approval wall below ground
G.S.R. 673(E) of 18 July 2018 lists equipment for underground coal mines that must be of a DGMS-approved type, including cap lamps, flameproof, intrinsically safe and increased-safety electrical equipment, telemonitoring systems and audio-visual alarms.
Regulation 208(2) requires flameproof electrical apparatus below ground in second- and third-degree gassy seams unless the CEA safety regulations provide otherwise. Regulation 112(2) of the CEA (Measures relating to Safety and Electric Supply) Regulations, 2023, which replaced the 2010 regulations that 208(2) names, requires signalling and telecommunication circuits there to be intrinsically safe, and apparatus within 90 m (second degree) or 270 m (third degree) of a working face or goaf, in-bye of the last ventilation connection or in return airways to be flameproof.
Identium’s readers, active tags and BLE hardware carry no DGMS approval and no flameproof, intrinsic-safety or ATEX/IECEx certification. As on our RFID for oil and gas page, the tag travels with the person or machine and the read point stays outside the zone: here, the lamp room, surface gates and other surface points the mine’s own hazardous-area assessment permits.
Passive UHF, active 2.4 GHz and BLE in a mine
Passive UHF cards and wristbands use India’s licence-exempt 865–868 MHz band (G.S.R. 853(E), 2021) and, with no transmitter, need no WPC approval or BIS registration. Active and BLE tags use the 2.4 GHz ISM band instead; ask the supplier for each model’s WPC position in writing. A passive read shows only that a tag passed a reader; active and BLE tags broadcast on their own schedule. Our active RFID vs BLE vs passive UHF comparison covers the trade-off.
| Read point | What a read proves | Technology that fits | Approval question |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lamp-room window or surface entry point | A named person went down or came up | Passive UHF card or wristband at a fixed or gate reader | Chief Inspector approval and a printed copy for electronic name recording (reg 40(3)); reader BIS/WPC per model |
| Surface gates, workshops, fuel bays | This machine or person passed here, at this time | Rugged or on-metal UHF tags on HEMM; active or BLE for surface zones | Each model’s BIS/WPC status, in writing |
| Opencast haul roads | Only that a tagged person was near a tagged vehicle | Supplement only; the PWD itself is sensor-based | Clause 14.1.8 reports from an independent test house |
| Underground roadways | Probable location, at zone level | Active 2.4 GHz or BLE zone readers with backhaul | DGMS-approved; intrinsically safe or flameproof per CEA 2023 reg 112; not Identium hardware |
How SCCL’s 2021 EoI scoped underground personnel tracking
SCCL’s 2021 Expression of Interest sought underground tracking to comply with regulation 37(5)(c), with a pilot proposed for part of GDK-11 Incline and possible extension to nine other underground mines. These are SCCL’s requirements, not product claims:
- Network and tracking. Optical-fibre backbone with a Wi-Fi last mile, reporting to the surface in real time; RFID readers or another suitable system, with active readers giving at least 100 m line of sight; active or passive tags on people and equipment.
- Approvals. Underground equipment flameproof or intrinsically safe and DGMS-approved, with permissions under regulation 208(3).
We do not know the outcome of that EoI.
Writing a tender line a vendor can honestly bid
- Name the regulation: for a PWD, G.S.R. 987(E), Circulars 06/2020 and 07/2025, and IS 17055 (Part 6) with Amendment 1 (for metal mines, ask DGMS which instrument applies); regulation 37(5)(c) for location; 40(3) for electronic name recording.
- Mark every device surface or below ground, and require DGMS approval and intrinsically safe or flameproof construction as regulation 208 and CEA 2023 regulation 112 require.
- Ask who holds each approval, bidder or OEM, in writing.
- For a PWD, require clause 14.1.8 test reports, a clause-by-clause statement against 14.1.1–14.1.9, and conformity evidence against IS 17055 (Part 6) Amendment 1.
- Set log retention and daily checks: at least the 96 operating hours of clause 14.1.7, and a record of the daily pre-operational check of the proximity warning system that DGMS Circular No. 5 of 2026 requires.
- Specify backhaul, supply voltage and battery hours.
- Settle data ownership, source code and integration.
- Keep air-interface terms straight: EPC Gen2 means passive UHF, so an active or BLE line cannot ask for it.
Where Identium fits, and where it does not
- Surface UHF read points at the lamp-room window and gates, using our UHF RFID readers. Identium is a BIS and WPC approved RFID manufacturer.
- Passive RFID cards and RFID wristbands for people, feeding RFID employee tracking software or your own register.
- Rugged RFID tags and on-metal tags carrying a machine’s MRN on HEMM, with fuel authorisation in the India RFID Store’s diesel bowser and HEMM fuel guide and lease-gate vehicle identity in our mineral transport compliance post.
- Surface zone tracking with active RFID readers and tags (F529 and F530 readers, AT508 tag, T505 card) or BLE beacons and gateways such as the ID-BGW-02 and the ID-BLE-B50 SOS button.
None of this hardware is for underground coal workings, and we make neither proximity warning devices nor cap lamps. To scope the surface layer of a mine safety tender, send us your read points and the regulation each serves.