States » EastPosted at: Oct 28 2026 11:41PM


Bengal: 12 miners rescued after 12-hour ordeal at ECL's Kumardihi colliery; 30 others evacuated underground

Durgapur, Oct 28 (UNI) Twelve miners suspended mid-shaft and 30 others trapped in an underground gallery were rescued after a steam winder failure paralysed operations at Eastern Coalfields Limited's (ECL) Kumardihi 'A' colliery, bringing an overnight rescue operation lasting nearly 12 hours to an end early on Tuesday.
The incident has once again raised questions about the reliability of ageing infrastructure at ECL mines.
A five-member inquiry committee had been constituted to investigate the failure and submit a detailed report on the technical glitches, RKP Singh, general manager of ECL's Bankola area. said on Wednesday.
Krishna Roy, an INTUC leader in the mining sector, claimed that rope entanglements, brake failures and cages getting stuck had become increasingly frequent in older pits. He alleged that inadequate maintenance and delays in replacing faulty equipment often led to such incidents.
The incident occurred at Pit No. 4 during a shift change on Monday evening when a heavy steel wire rope slipped from the pulley drum, bringing the shaft to a halt. Two lift cages became stuck mid-shaft — one carrying four miners ascending, suspended 15 metres above the pit bottom, and another carrying eight miners descending, halted at a depth of 40 metres. With the main exit blocked, 30 other miners working underground were stranded.
"In the first breakthrough around midnight, rescue teams evacuated all 30 stranded miners through a second outlet at neighbouring Pit No. 3, in compliance with the Directorate General of Mines Safety protocols," RKP Singh said.
The rescue teams then secured the headgear with clip locks and rolled back the drum to stabilise the suspended cages. By 5.45 am, all 12 miners had been brought to safety.
Vinod Singh, a member of ECL's Corporate Safety Board, pointed to technical issues associated with steam winders, whose engines operate through repeated forward and reverse cycles to raise and lower the cages. He said the constant cyclic load could cause wear in eccentric sheaves and straps, affecting steam distribution timing.
Singh added that slack and backlash in the Stephenson link, the reversing gear used in steam winders, could reduce the precision required to stop cages safely. He said such issues raised concerns about compliance with Section 79 of the Coal Mines Regulations, 2017, which deals with winding engines and associated safety provisions.
Section 81(10) of the regulations also requires shafts to have an effective automatic mechanism to prevent overspeeding and overwinding. Provisions under Section 79 address safeguards relating to winding drums and rope fixing to prevent ropes from slipping or winding unevenly.
Singh claimed that preliminary findings at Kumardihi pointed to uneven rope winding caused by a technical fault involving the fleet angle, which led the haulage rope to jump its track.
UNI KS NST CDS
Tags: #Bengal: 12 miners rescued after 12-hour ordeal at ECL's Kumardihi colliery; 30 others evacuated underground
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