Miners in blast-hit coal mine untraced

RAIPUR - Rescuers at a blast-hit underground coal mine in Chhattisgarh have failed to make contact with two missing miners despite their best efforts for the past one week, officials said Tuesday.

An air blast hit the Anjali Hill mine in Koriya district, over 400 km north of capital Raipur, May 6 when workers were trying to fix a carbon monoxide leak.

The mine caved in and killed four people. The death toll has since risen to nine.

The mine is owned by the South Eastern Coalfields Ltd (SECL), the largest profit-making subsidiary of the public sector Coal India Ltd.

“The rescuers are doing the best to reach out to the two trapped miners. Hopes of their survival is now almost zero,” SECL spokesperson Alok Sinha told IANS by phone from Bilaspur where the SECL headquarters is based.

He said the incident had halted production of the blast-hit mine that had a daily output of 800-900 tonnes of superior grade coal.

Sinha said: “I can’t say when production will restart. Our focus now is on rescue work.”