The challenging job lay ahead of two public sector coal companies - Bharat Coking Coal Company Limitrd (BCCL) and the Eastern Coalfields Ltd (ECL).
They would have to implement the much-awaited Jharia rehabilitation plan worth Rs 6,300 crore.
The Jharkhand government recently approved the plan and it was now awaiting the consent of the Union coal ministry and thereafter of the Union cabinet.
Official sources said that if the proposed Jharia rehabilitation plan was cleared, it would necessitate the evacuation of several lakhs of people living in the endangered area of Jharia in Jharkhand.
BCCL would construct over 80,000 houses in the safe areas to accommodate all its employees living within the endangered zones.
Sources said that besides the BCCL employees, Jharia Action Plan would displace large number of people engaged in the industries, shops and establishments there as well as encroachers of the land.
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Some parts of the Raniganj area of West Bengal would come under Jharia Action Plan and there would have to be some evacuation in that zone to shift the affected people to safer locations.
The Jharia rehabilitation plan received the sanction of the Jharkhand government earlier this year after a specially called high-level meeting of senior officials of the concerned coal companies headed by chairman and managing director of Coal India Limited (CIL) was held in the state capital of Ranchi on May 7.
However, industry sources pointed out that some hurdles still stood in the way of shifting of the displaced people from their existing homesteads to the proposed dwellings.
Recently, the residents and Jharia Bachao Samiti in association with the central trade unions and a number of political parties adopted a new proposal to save the historical Jharia township.
According to senior leader of the Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC), A K Jha, the Jharkhand government and Coal India Limited had ulterior motives.
He alleged that the two wanted to dismantle the centuries-old historical township.
Jha said that the coal companies should take measures to control the underground fires buring up the coal seams in the region instead of digging out the coal reserves at the cost of the people's life and property.
Former Bihar minister and senior INTUC leader O P Lal also opposed the Jharia Action Plan and said that the coal companies should have taken a scientific solution to control the underground fire which had been creating havoc at as many as 86 locations.
He claimed the fire could be brought under control even without evacuating the township.
According to State-in-charge of the All India Centre for Trade Unions (AICTU), Sukhdeo Prasad, the Jharia Action Plan was a detailed conspiracy hatched by the coal company with the cooperation of the Jharkhand government to release the coal blocks so that they could be exploited by a powerful private sector steel company.
Jharia Action Plan would displace large number of people engaged in the industries, shops and establishments.
Moreover thousands of encroachers had built their homesteads and business establishments. They would also be moved when the Jharia Action Plan implemented.
This aspect was not dealt with in the Jharia Action Plan and the actual number of encroachers had not been revealed so far by the concerned authorities.
In the past, several surveys had been done by several agencies, but every survey came up with a new figure on the number of encroachers.