Jharkhand
Centre of Excellence and VR Mine Simulator at IIT Dhanbad
- 24 Dec 2025
- 2 min read
Why in News?
Union Minister of Coal and Mines, G Kishan Reddy, inaugurated a Centre of Excellence (CoE) under the National Critical Minerals Mission and Virtual Reality Mine Simulator (VRMS) at IIT (ISM) Dhanbad.
Key Points
- Centre of Excellence: The CoE under the National Critical Minerals Mission will be a national research hub for critical minerals exploration, extraction, processing, reuse and recycling.
- Virtual Reality Mine Simulator: The VRMS—developed with Coal India Limited and subsidiaries—is India’s first VR‑based mine simulator designed for coal mining safety and productivity.
- Strategic Focus: He highlighted the role of the mining sector at a historic juncture where technology, critical minerals and sustainability align with the vision of Aatmanirbhar Bharat, stressing increased R&D investment, innovation ecosystem expansion and improved monitoring systems like Coal SETU and Koyla Shakti Dashboard.
- IIT Dhanbad: Indian Institute of Technology Dhanbad
- Established: 1926 as Indian School of Mines
- Converted to IIT in 2016.
