Barapukuria coalminers yesterday claimed to have informed the Chinese firm about a crack in the roof of the mine just 15 minutes before Monday's accident that left two workers killed.

Still in a daze, Abul Hossain, a worker who saw one of his colleague die in the roof collapse, said, "Only 15 minutes before the accident, we informed our Chinese supervisor of the crack in the roof of the newly blasted-out tunnel."

The Chinese authorities did not care about the complaint and asked the coalminers to mind their own work, Abul Hossain said.

"They (the two killed) were greasing the compressed air-driven drill machine. Within seconds, a huge rock of the roof crashed down upon them, and they died instantly," he added.

Asked, General Manager of the coalmine project Sirajul Islam told The Daily Star that he heard about the labourers' complaint. The complaint is being investigated, he said.

Sirajul Islam said, "It was an accident, which is common in such projects abroad too. According to

our primary investigation, Monday's accident was due to carelessness of the labourers."

The pace of work on the project has slowed down since the accident, he said.

Now, the coalminers want to go back to work, but the Petrobangla suspended the work after the accident.

Meanwhile, the Chinese construction authorities have promised a favourable environment in the mine to shore up confidence in the workers.

But Ataur, Manik, Rahman and several other labourers told this correspondent that they were in fear and did not decide whether they would join the work within a day or two.

Md. Sadequl Islam, assistant secretary of the Barapukuria Load and Unload Labourers Union said that at least 200 labourers affiliated with the union work on the project, but after the accident, all of them stopped working. "Considering all, we must join our work soon."

Managing Director of the project Golam Mustafa said, "For a proper investigation into the accident, we have suspended the work at the

tunnel-point where the accident took place...but the work in other tunnels is going on."

The managing director quoted the experts of the Chinese firm, CMC, as saying the work at the accident point can resume now, but we are waiting for completion of the investigation.

Asked about any new safety measures, the managing director said all possible security measures were already existing in the mine. "No security measure will work in case of accident," he said.

At least three committees were investigating the accident. The committee formed by the project management and headed by General Manager Sirajul Islam has already completed its investigation.

The committee formed by Petrobangla, headed by a senior general manager, is likely to start its investigation from today.

Meanwhile Petrobangla Chairman Syed Sajedul Karim visited the coalmine site yesterday.

The US$ 227 million coalmine project was signed in February,

1994, and more than 60 per cent of the project work has been completed.

The workforce consists of about 500 Bangladeshi and as many Chinese labourers. Now, the number of Bangladeshi workers has come down to a little more than 250 after the accident.