Coal town paid rich tributes to 29 miners who laid down their lives during the course of duty in a mishap caused due inundation at the Bagdigi colliery of Lodna area of BCCL on February 2, 2001.
The occasion was the 21st anniversary of the mishap during which senior officials of BCCL led by its Chairman cum Managing Director, Samiran Dutta; trade union leaders and family members of the deceased congregated at the martyr memorial at Bagdigi and offered floral tributes to the departed soul.
Speaking on the occasion Dutta who was present at the site along with Vidyut Saha, Director (Personnel); Arun Kumar, General Manager of Lodna Area and others said, “The company will never forget the contribution of 29 of our staff and officials who died during the course of duty. We have learnt a lot from the incident with regard to the significance of safety.”
General Manager of Lodna area of BCCL said, “An unfortunate incident took place on February 2, 2001 when 29 workers and officials working in seven number face of seam 12 of Bagdigi Colliery were trapped at the mining site due to water inflow from the adjoining area entering the mines due to rupturing of the wall of the underground mines.”
Notably, more than 80 workers were in the colliery when the incident took place. The inundation began in seam 12 from adjoining seam 11 at around 11 am during the first shift of work due to wall collapse and a hookman who first spotted the water inflow, started shouting after which several of 80 miners somehow escaped from the site while 30 others could not escape.
Family members of the deceased pay their obeisance Gautam Dey
Senior officials of the district administration, police and BCCL led by then Deputy Commissioner Vinod Kispotta and SP, Abdul Gani Mir who immediately reached the site supervised the rescue work launched by BCCL by roping its trained rescuers from different areas. Despite carrying out rescue for three days the rescuers however could not spot or rescue the trapped miners.
Ultimately, a team of divers from Mumbai was called which reached at the site and recovered the dead bodies of the deceased miners. A miraculous escape took place during the incident when Salim Ansari, a fitter working in the mine was spotted seven days later by the rescuers as he survived without any food and water by climbing on a high coal rock inside the mine to defend himself and somehow survived by drinking the mine pit water. Ansari who retired from BCCL in 2006 later narrated the story to the BCCL officers and administration.
