Talcher: A coalmine worker was killed while three others were feared trapped and nine rendered critical in a landslide at an open cast mine of Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd (MCL) at Bharatpur of Talcher in Angul district Wednesday.
According to reports, rescue teams pulled out the body of a worker from the rubble, while three others are feared trapped. At least nine workers were rescued and are undergoing treatment for injuries at Talcher Central Hospital. The deceased was identified as Pupun Biswal.
Sources said, labourers working in the night shift at Bharatpur open cast mine in Talcher Coalfields of MCL came under a dump slide due to a strata failure. The accident occurred between 10 pm and 10:30 pm Tuesday when a portion of earth caved in trapping 13 workers and heavy machinery.
The fellow labourers and rescue teams immediately swung into action and rescued nine workers, who were shifted to the company’s Central Hospital for treatment of critical injuries. Rescue operation is underway to recover three missing workers.
Anugul Collector Manoj Mohanty, Superintendent of Police Mitrabhanu Mohapatra, sub-collector Paresh Chandra Nayak, SDPO Hemanta Kumar Panda, MCL’s Director (Technical/Operations) JP Singh and Director (Personnel) Basudevan have rushed to Talcher to oversee the rescue operations.
Meanwhile, tension has erupted in the area following the incident. The district administration has deployed adequate security personnel to avoid any untoward incident.
Notably, there is no sufficient land for coal excavation. Instead of bench mining the coal is excavated through vertical angle mining. Company authority is inviting landslide by adopting coal extrication through vertical angle mining process, it is said.
The roads connecting the underground mining area are in a precarious condition. However, the labourers are doing their job without any safety measures arranged by the company.
