Four miners, including one unit manager, died, while several others were trapped when the roof of an inclined mine caved-in at Nirsa about 55 km from the district headquarter of Dhanbad on Monday morning.
The inclined mine at Basanti Mata Colliery in Nirsa belongs to Bharat Coking Coal limited (BCCl). “It was closed in the year 2009 after being declared dangerous but it was reopened just three months back as an NOC was given by higher ups for excavation and production,” a top official said. About 175 miners entered into the mine in the morning for work and at 11 am the incident took place, said an eyewitness. After the long struggle of 7 hours rescue team was yet to find the miners who were trapped in, he said.
“Rescue works are on. We are trying to bring out the trapped miners at the earliest. Dozens of them were rescued, while 40 more miners are still trapped in the mine,” said Ashok Sarkar Director Technical of BCCl. “Twenty more miners who were rescued are also deployed on the rescue work to bring out the trapped miners,” he added.
Confirming the death of four miners, Sarkar said rescuers have recovered four bodies, identified as Aroop Chatrjee, the Unit Manager of the project, Hari lal Chamar, littu Saw and Sita-Ram Manjhi, the miners. “About 100 sqft of the roof of the mine caved-in as it was ‘not bolted’ for safety point, resulted into accident,” said a miner who was rescued after the accident. “The four were buried alive in the accident,” said another miner. “A team of Director General of Mines and Safety (DGMS) was rushed on the spot for investigation, which will submit its report within two days,” Sarkar said.