Four workers were killed, while two others remain trapped under massive pile-up of debris, after a rockslide took place at Kirandul mining operations area of National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC), situated in restive Dantewada district, some 400 kilometres southwards from the capital. The incident took place on Tuesday afternoon at 2.30 pm, when a team of over fourteen workers were engaged in the construction work of a retaining wall of Screening Plant-3 (SP-3) extension project of the NMDC mines, under Kirandul police station limits. “Suddenly, a huge portion of rock caved in at the construction site, trapping four ill-fated workers under the massive pile-up of debris. A heavy earth-moving machine was also damaged in the incident. The NDMC had outsourced the work to Larsen & Toubro (L&T). The deceased were working for L&T,” police sources said.

 

Upon the receipt of the news of mishap, multiple teams from District Administration, Dantewada Police, NDMC as well as State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) rushed to the scene and commenced rescue and relief operations on war foot, which eventually led to recovery of four bodies from the debris. Heavy earth-moving machines along with a skilled team of engineers and operators have been engaged in rescuing the remaining workers, who are still trapped beneath. Most of the victims, who had fallen prey to the incident, hail from West Bengal and Bihar. Police sources, in the meantime, identified four deceased labourers as Bakul Bala (26), Nirmal Bala (55) Tushar Bala (49), all related to each other and basically hail from Kolkata (West Bengal) and Santosh Kumar (29), a native of Bihar. “Fortunately, , 10 other labourers were rescued within a very short span of time and they suffered only minor injuries. All of them were discharged after administering preliminary medical treatment,” the sources added.

 

Sources further said that the preliminary investigation into the mishap has revealed that the company had been drilling deep inside a mountain of iron ore for which the construction of retaining wall was being undertaken by the labourers. “It so happened that a rock breaker machine was bringing down the solid structure of the mountain from one side by breaking down big rocks, while on the other side, labourers were busy in constructing the retaining wall. The concurrent work by both men and machine together caused so much vibration in the rocks that a massive rock structure of the mountain caved in and left the labourers trapped under debris. Thankfully, the operator of the rock breaker machine, managed to save his life by jumping off the vehicle, soon after the cave in took place,” the sources averred. Sources also affirmed that the Kirandul police station has registered an offence of accidental death and were further probing to ascertain negligence that led to the tragic incident. Dantewada Collector Mayank Chaturvedi has announced a magisterial inquiry into the incident.