Gate-Road Geomechanics in LTCC and Thick-Seam Longwall Mining: A Critical Review and Proposed Adaptive Framework for Indian Gondwana Coalfields

Gate roadways provide access, ventilation, transport and services throughout longwall panel development and retreat. Their stability depends on stress orientation, roof-bed structure, discontinuities, pillar geometry, support response and extraction sequence. In longwall top-coal caving (LTCC), the deliberate fracture and rear-window drawing of upper coal add load-transfer interactions that are not represented by bottom-slice extraction or by high-cutting single-pass longwall. This critical narrative review synthesises published field studies, case histories, numerical analyses and technical literature relevant to LTCC and thick-seam gate-road behaviour, with particular attention to Indian Gondwana conditions. Adriyala is treated as a bottom-slice comparator: its retained upper coal informs roof behaviour and monitoring, but it is not evidence of deliberate LTCC top-coal drawing. The review proposes a six-stage adaptive framework linking site characterisation, extraction geometry, layout comparison, support design, installation verification, and monitoring-led updating. A TARP response logic is presented as a site-specific management tool. The framework is a structured synthesis of the reviewed evidence, not a validated design standard; numerical dimensions and support values from individual cases are not transferable without mine-specific analysis. Instrumented prospective studies in Indian thick-seam and LTCC panels are needed to test and refine the framework.