Coal lndia develops sanitsing chamber for mine workers

Workers walk on a heap of coal at a stockyard of an underground coal mine in the Mahanadi coal fields at Dera, near Talcher town. Credit: Reuters Photo

State-owned CIL has developed a sanitising chamber for disinfecting its mine workers and containing the spread of the deadly coronavirus that has wreaked havoc across the world.

The sanitising chamber at one of the mines of Coal India-arm South Eastern Coalfields Ltd (SECL) has already been commissioned, an official said.

Each worker of SECL at the Bartunga Hill Mine in Chhattisgarh enters the sanitising chamber where a disinfectant is sprayed over the full body, making the worker safe and sanitised, the official said.

"A full-body sanitiser has been commissioned in Bartunga Hill Mine, Chirimiri area, SECL. The system consists of a water pump ... In the system there are total 16 misting nozzles which are installed on both sides of the chamber in two columns; four nozzles each on both side of the chamber which operates automatically by a timer circuit," the official said.

When a person put his leg even for a second in the foot platform of timer circuit, the pump operates automatically in turn water misting starts from all the 16 nozzles, the official explained.

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The nozzles are operative for 20 seconds which is required for proper sanitisation, the official said adding that after that the pump stops automatically.

The chemical used for sanitisation is sodium hypochlorite in recommended portion with water.

According to the official, another Coal India subsidiary Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd (MCL) has pressed into service a "fog cannon" to sanitise peripheral areas among coal miners and people living in and around its operations.

The single largest coal-producing company in the world has taken several measures to contain the spread of coronavirus pandemic.

CIL subsidiaries have distributed more than 3.3 lakh face masks to the people in and around coal mines.

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The arms have set up 1,509 isolation beds in eight states in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, an official said. The eight coal-bearing states are Jharkhand, West Bengal, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra and Assam.

In its fight against the deadly virus, CIL had earlier pledged Rs 220 crore to the Prime Minister's Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situation (PM-CARES) Fund.

Coal India accounts for over 80 per cent of domestic coal output.