SUBHASH MISHRA
Dhanbad, Sept 25: Rattled by frequent incidents of the sinking of the ground because of underground material movement on roads (subsidence) in the Jharia fire zone, the district administration has resolved to get a satellite survey through the National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC) Hyderabad for safe diversion.
A senior official on Saturday said that the roads at some places in the Jharia fire and subsidence prone zone have already been declared dangerous for the movement of people. Diversion of routes is the only alternative to avoid the incident. As a result, it was decided to seek assistance from the NRSC Hyderabad for safe transit.
Last week, the PMO appointed a high-level committee that had assessed the status of the Jharia coal mines fire. This was done for shifting and settling the families living in dangerous zones at safer places.
An official of the district administration said that Deputy Commissioner Sandip Singh, who is also the chairman of Jharia Rehabilitation and Development Authority (JRDA) meant for rehabilitation of fire affected families, has expressed his concerns over frequent subsidence incidents on state highway roads in the Jharia region. He has decided to make diversions from fire and subsidence-prone roads on a priority basis.
At a meeting with officials of BCCL (Bharat Coking Coal Limited), CMPDIL (Central Mine and Planning Institute Limited) and Rail India Technical and Economic Service Limited (RITES) on Friday, the DC discussed road diversion in Jharia.
“After getting a satellite survey of NRSC, experts of BCCL and CMPDIL will study the data and submit a report to the district administration. On the basis of this report, the district administration will fix safe diversion routes in Jharia,” added the official.
Several places on the state highway in Jharia and National Highway-32 are considered highly subsidence prone due to the underground fire. Subsidence incidents occur quite often on these roads especially during the rainy season, paralysing the traffic movement. In 2017, a garage owner and his son got buried alive at Indira Chowk on the main road connecting Jharia- Sindri township in one such subsidence.
