Over 1,000 residents to be evacuated after ‘poisonous’ gas leak in Dhanbad

Over 1,000 residents of Dhanbad’s Kenduadih Basti are being evacuated after a suspected carbon monoxide leak from underground mines. One woman died and 12 others fell ill. BCCL has begun clearing danger zones and arranging temporary shelters, officials said.

Dhanbad: Over 1,000 residents in Jharkhand’s Dhanbad district will be shifted to safer locations, following the incident of a “poisonous gas leak” from underground mines, officials said on Thursday.

A woman allegedly died on Wednesday, while 12 people fell sick after “carbon monoxide” leaked from such mines in different places of Kenduadih Basti in the district, they said.

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The exact cause of the woman’s death, however, is yet to be ascertained and it could only be confirmed after receiving the postmortem report, the officials said.

Soon after the incident, the Bharat Coking Coal Ltd (BCCL) started eviction of people from the “danger zones”, they said.

The company also pasted notices on walls of houses in the locality, asking people to vacate at the earliest, an official said.

BCCL’s Putki-Balihati Colliery Area GM G C Saha told reporters that three ambulances have been kept on standy in the basti to deal with any emergency situation.

“The company is making arrangments to shift the residents to safer places. For safety of life and property, we have already requested them to leave the dangerous zone,” Saha said.