CHANDRAPUR: A large section of overburden (OB) caved into Padmapur opencast coal mine under WCL Chandrapur area on Wednesday afternoon. Though no fatality was reported, three large drill machines, including two new ones, were buried under tonnes of soil.
Sources said while work was underway in the first shift at Padmapur opencast mine, a large chunk of overburden started sliding down. The workers in the mine were startled by the sudden slide and rushed out to safety. The drill operators also abandoned their machines and fled to safety.
Sources told three drill machines were buried under the OB slide completely. The caving of the OB dump continued for several hours.
Senior officials of Western Coalfields Limited (WCL) rushed to the spot to inspect the damage.
General secretary of central committee of Indian National Trade Union Congress (Intuc) KK Singh said there was no loss of life or injury to any miner. He, however, claimed that the OB fall was so large that it could keep the coal mine closed for nearly a month keeping around 1,000 miners workless during the period.
