Bhubaneswar: A total of 25 fatal accidents have been reported in the coal mines of Odisha since 2017, recent data from the Ministry of Coal and Mines claimed.
According to the latest provisional data from the ministry, the state has already seen five fatal accidents and one serious accident this year.
The data claimed that the state saw five fatal coal accidents in coal mining plants while one serious accident was too reported from the areas in 2017.
In 2018, the number of fatal accidents at such sites increased to eight while two other serious accidents were reported from coal mines in Odisha. Likewise, seven persons lost their lives in coal mines while two serious accidents were also reported from the state in 2019.
The ministry said that three deceased from Odisha have already received compensation from the government in 2020 for the current year’s accidents while compensation of one of the employees is under process.
Citing the prime reasons for more accidents in coal mines, the ministry said that underground coal mining is more hazardous and geo-mining conditions in the mine is totally different as compared to non-coal mines and opencast mines.
“Volume of production of coal and removal of ‘over burden’ is much more and deployment of machinery in underground coal mines is also more in comparison with non-coal mines. Risk/hazard of exposure of employees is more in coal underground mines as compared to non-coal mines,” the ministry said.
The ministry has claimed to have taken some preventive steps too to minimise the accidents. These include preparation and implementation of risk assessment based safety management plans, preparation and implementation of principal hazards management plans along with trigger action response plan.
The ministry said that some other steps are: Conducting safety audit of mines, online centralised safety monitoring system for monitoring different safety parameters and formulation of site specific risk assessment based Standard Operating Protocol.