New Delhi, June 4 (IANS) Union Minister of State for Power, Coal and New and Renewable energy Piyush Goyal on Thursday said the Centre is utilising technology for curbing coal mafia as results of a pilot project are encouraging.

Answering a question raised on social networking site Facebook, the minister said a pilot project was undertaken where GIS mapping of the entire coal mine area was done along with creating an electronic boundary.
GPRS systems were used in the entire process and CCTV cameras were installed for monitoring. In the project, computerised automated weigh-bridges have also been used besides other “technological interventions”.
“The results so far are encouraging and have brought transparency. We are scaling it up to top 30-40 mines, which account for 75 percent of Coal India’s output. All of this is going to be up on the website. At some stage, I am visualising a live feed from these cameras and technology for the public to view,” he said.
— Indo-Asian News Service
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