The discipline of Mining Engineering is unique to IIT Kharagpur among the IITs. Set up in 1956, the department offers undergraduate, postgraduate, and doctoral programmes. It is actively involved in research in the broad areas of Mine Fire and Explosions, Model Studies in Ventilation, Rock Mechanics, Underground and Surface Environment, Geomatics, Mine Safety, and Reliability, and relevant computer applications. The department has considerable industrial interaction with all the major mining establishments in India in terms of short-term courses.