Mine disaster could have been averted

As the mine management reduced the thickness of the barrier by 20 feet, it could not withstand the heavy water surge from the adjacent mine, one of the experts said.

"The 80-feet thick barrier stood like a strong wall between the two mines. But following the alteration of its thickness nearly 60 million gallons of water surged in from Jairampur mine leaving that mine completely dry," he said.

This factor should be investigated, the experts said.

Officials, trapped in the flooded Bagdigi colliery of the Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL) since Friday, are now feared dead, BCCL sources said here today.

Divers were being requisitioned from Kolkata to trace bodies or possible survivors in the inundated mine shaft, 241 metres underground, they said.

The miners were trapped when 60 million gallons of water gushed in from adjacent Jairampur mine breaching a barrier.

Boring operations from the surface, which began on Friday evening to establish contact with the trapped miners, continued till late last night, the sources said.

The pumps which were dewatering the mine at the rate of two lakh gallons of water per hour would take another 48 hours to bring the water level down to enable a rescue team to look for bodies or survivors, if any, the sources said.

One of the seven pumps which was sucking out water, however, broke down, the sources said.

The BCCL management had earlier said the miners could have survived if they had managed to reach the right side of the flooded seam which was at a higher level.

On Friday night, a 10-member rescue team had attempted to reach the flooded mine but abandoned its efforts due to lack of oxygen.

On Saturday morning, the rescue team with gas masks made another abortive attempt to establish contact with the miners who included two officials — manager A K Upadhyay and assistant manager P R Singh.

Chief Minister Babulal Marandi had to cut short his visit to the disaster site on Saturday after police used lathis to keep at bay miners and relatives of those trapped who were protesting the slow pace of rescue operations. They also demanded that guilty officials be "hanged".