Ten workers killed in coal mine tragedy in Jharkhand

Ten workers were killed and many feared trapped inside a coal mine in Jharkhand after it collapsed on Thursday night. 

The incident of overburden dump slide in the opencast mine occurred in the Rajmahal Open Cast Expansion Project in Jharkhand’s Goda district at around 7:30 pm during the second shift when excavators were working there. The mine operates under Eastern Coalfields, a Coal India subsidiary.

“So long, we have recovered 10 bodies but the casualty might go up,” R R Amitabh, general manager of mining at Eastern Coalfields, who is in-charge of the control room set up in the disaster site, told Business Standard.  Amitabh could not confirm the total number of people who were manning the mine when the disaster struck as the shift roster was not available with him. 

Two persons have met with injuries and treated in the Area Hospital. One of them has been sent to Durgapur for further treatment. 

A statement from the coal ministry said that prima-facie, the possible cause of the accident was failure of the bench edge along the hidden faultlines where the collapse occurred. “The Director General of Mines Safety and an Expert Committee from Coal India will conduct an inquiry to find out why this disaster took place.”

According to the coal ministry, an area of 300 metres length by 110 metres wide solid floor has slid down by 35 metres involving 9.5 million cubic metres of earth material, which possibly could have resulted in the mine collapse. 

Just after the incident, Eastern Coalfield’s senior management and state government officials rushed to the spot while the National Disaster Rescue Force team from Patna has also been engaged for rescue and relief operations.

Central Mine Planning and Design Institute has deployed magnetometers along with imaging system for locating magnetic and conductive material up to a depth of 80 meters, which will aid rescue efforts. 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, coal minister Piyush Goyal, Jharkhand chief minister Raghubar Das and other leaders expressed grief over the loss of lives.

 “Jharkhand Government & Minister @PiyushGoyal are working to restore normalcy. @NDRFHQ has been engaged for rescue & relief operations”, said a tweet from PM Modi’s official Twitter handle. 

On his social media account, Goyal said he has been monitoring the situation in association with Das. 

The company has announced an ex-gratia compensation of Rs 5 lakh each to the family of the deceased, in addition to the amount to be paid under the Workmen's Compensation Act. Besides, Das said an assistance of Rs 2 lakh will be given to the families of the miners who died in the accident and a sum of Rs 25,000 will be given to those injured. 

Eastern Coalfields has Rs 40.85 crore actuarial provision for fatal mine accident policy benefits. 

Although Coal India’s track record of accidents and fatalities has improved since its foundation, 38 cases of accidents were reported last year, which claimed 38 lives. During 2010-14, there were 56 accidents taking a death toll of 62. 

According to Coal India officials, measures such as design of strata support and reinforcement systems have been implemented in the mines and the safety awareness programmes are conducted at regular intervals for the workforce.