Details

Size of Foremans District

MMR 37-(Cir. 34/1974)

 Size of Foreman’s District—The size of a foreman's district will, amongst other things, depend upon type of mine i.e., an opencast or underground mine; degree of mechanisation; steepness of workings; nature of working whether development drives or sloping district etc.

Taking into consideration different factors, it has been decided that the size of a Foreman's district, may be determined as follows :

A. OPENCAST MINES

(a) Manually worked or Semi-mechanised A Foreman's district shall comprise of two or more mate districts subject to a maximum of 4 such districts within a radius of 1 km in a hilly terrain or 2 km in flat country.

Provided that there shall be not more than 75 persons under the charge of one mate and the total length of working face in one or different benches in vertical plane shall not exceed 300 m in a mate's district when it is in a hilly terrain or 500 m in flat country as the case may be.

(b) Fully Mechanised

A Foreman's district shall comprise of mechanised working in which not more than two power shovels are operating with ancillary equipment viz: dumpers, loaders and drills etc.

B. UNDERGROUND MINES

Assuming that a Foreman can look after a mine having working point 2000 m apart horizontally and 100 m apart vertically at the extreme points, with up to 100 men under his charge the workload for a Foreman may be determined from the following empirical formula:—

Workload = DLW = 100 points for Full workload 200000 for a Foreman.

where, D = Vertical distance in meters between extreme working levels,

L = Horizontal walkable distance in meters between extreme working points,

W = No. of workmen underground placed under the charge of a Foreman. Provided, however, that—

(i) a foreman shall not be asked to supervise work of more than 2 sloping districts;

(ii) at least one Foreman shall be appointed per shift; and

(iii) a Foreman shall supervise the work of not more than 2 mates.

The above criteria are given here for general guidance only. If any variation of the abovementioned directions becomes necessary in any mine due to any practical difficulties, the advice of concerned Joint Director may be sought. At the same time, depending on local conditions, a Joint Director may stipulate additional number of foremen to be appointed in the interest of safety of workers, as a special case.