Dhanbad: Deputy commissioner (DC) Aditya Ranjan on Thursday said 535 families will be moved out from Kenduadih, which is affected by underground fire and gas leakage. Ranjan, along with SSP Prabhat Kumar, inspected affected areas and appealed to residents living in the danger zone to shift immediately to safer locations.The officials began their visit by assessing the fire and subsidence-hit stretch of the Dhanbad–Bokaro road, which has already been declared unsafe for public use. They later inspected the gas leakage site and held a high-level review meeting at Kenduadih police station with senior officials of Bharat Coking Coal Limited, including chairman-cum-managing director Manoj Kumar Agarwal and director (technical operations) Sanjay Kumar Singh.Addressing the media after the meeting, Ranjan said shifting families from fire-affected and subsidence-prone zones to Belgadia township remains the district administration’s top priority. He said that 535 families have been identified for rehabilitation, though some households were left out during the survey and will be included.“Residents must understand that gas leakage caused by underground fire will not stop; rather, it may intensify over time,” the DC said. He added that expert institutions like IIT (ISM) Dhanbad, DGMS and CIMFR have declared the entire area a ‘danger zone’, cautioning of potentially more severe conditions in the future. Considering the risk to infrastructure, the Kenduadih police station will be relocated to the old BSNL telephone exchange building in Kendua by Monday.
