Calcutta, Sept. 26: The director-general of mines safety has urged Coal India and its subsidiaries to focus on prevention of accidents at mines.

The coal major is looking to ramp up production to 908 million tonnes by 2019-20. As the focus of this expansion is on underground mining, implementation of mine safety procedures become more significant.

"The situation is not good at the grass-roots level. Today we have a reactive system of mine safety where action is taken after incidents occur," Rahul Guha, director-general of mines and safety (ministry of labour and employment), said.

He added that a commitment from the top management to prevent mine accidents is often inadequate.

He said in the last five years (2011-August-2015), there have been 352 fatal accidents in coal mines and the aggregate number since 1901 is 18,200.

"These figures are a matter of concern," said Guha at a seminar of the Mining, Geological & Metallurgical Institute of India today.

He said that in random checks to test the disaster management alertness of coal miners, the response has not been encouraging.

"There is a need to move towards a proactive system of mine safety where risk areas are identifiable and preventive actions can be taken. The DGMS is working on improving the safety and health management in mines," said Guha.