Tata Steel's relentless efforts towards ensuring safety in all its areas of operations was recognised and acknowledged at the Prize Distribution Ceremony of National Safety Award 2004-2005 and 2006 organized by Ministry of Labour and Employment Govt. of India and Directorate General of Mines safety, Government of India at Vigyan Bhawan today. West Bokaro and Jharia divisions of Tata Steel received awards from the President of India Ms. Pratibha Patil for their exemplary performance in the area of safety.

Bhelatand Amalgamated Colliery and Sijua Colliery of Jharia Division of Tata Steel have been given the National Safety Awards. In the category of difficult underground mines, Bhelatand amalgamated colliery was the winner and it received the award for the "longest accident free period" for year 2004 and 2006. Sijua colliery was given the "Runners Up" for the longest accident free period for the year 2005. While this is the first time Sijua colliery has received a National Award, Bhelatand amalgamated colliery was declared the Winner in 2003 also. Sijua and Bhelatand colliery are the underground coal mines in Jharia division of Tata Steel. They are both Degree II gassy mines with a maximum working depth of over 450 metres. Mr. C Divaker, General Manager (Jharia division) and his team from Jharia along with Mr. Nageshwar Prasad Saroj, Mining Sirdar and President RCMS, Sijua colliery, received the awards for Jharia Division of Tata Steel.

Two Open cast Mines of West Bokaro Division of Tata Steel also received the National Safety Awards. Quarry South East of West Bokaro which has been developed as a World Class Mines received the Winner trophy for the year 2006 and Quarry-AB got the Runner -up trophy for the year 2004. The awards were received by Mr. A K Verma, Officiating Chief Q - E and his team along with Mr. S S P Singh, Secretary - Rashtriya Colliery Majdoor Sangh (RCMS) West Bokaro for Q-SE received the award for West Bokaro division.

These awards won by Tata Steel in the area of safety are an outstanding achievement.

About Tata Steel

Established in 1907 as Asia's first integrated private sector steel company, Tata Steel today is the world sixth largest steel producer with geographic footprints in India, South East Asia, UK and Europe. With the recent acquisition of Corus Limited, the combined enterprise has a pro forma crude steel capacity of 28.1 million tonnes with over 82,000 employees in 24 countries across four continents.

Safety being one of the most tenets at Tata Steel, 2007 has been declared as the Safety Year by the Company. Jharia Division, one of the underground mines of Tata Steel has become the first underground coal mines in the country to get OHSAS 18001:1999 certificate of approval from Indian Register Quality System (IRQS). The division is also the first underground coal mines to get EMS 14001:2004. Jharia division has been given this certificate of approval for its continued improvement to conform to the Occupational Health and Safety Management System specification and Environment management system Standards. Q-SE and Q-AB of West Bokaro Division of Tata Steel (including Quarry-E) is also certified in Environment Management System ISO-14001 (first in coal industries), Indira Priyadarshini Vriksha Mitra Award, OHSAS (Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series) 18001 and many other awards in different areas like safety, quality and customer orientation. West Bokaro has also won 15 prizes in Annual Mines safety week Competition-2007 (Ranchi-Koderma Region) including Overall First Prize and proven their commitment to 24 hours safety in their Open-Cast Mines