JOWAI/SHILLONG/GUWAHATI: Incessant rain since Monday night brought ongoing operations to rescue miners trapped in a coal mine at Ksan in East Jaintia Hills district to a halt on Tuesday while their number is now believed to be 14 and not 13 as was declared earlier.
Superintendent of Police S Nongtynger identified the 14th miner as Abdul Kalam, a resident of Magurmari in West Garo Hills district.
The SP said Kalam’s family had informed him that he was working in the ill-fated mine and was now missing. There are several others from the district among the trapped miners.
The SP said since there was no record of workers in the mine it was difficult to ascertain the exact figure.
A survivor from Assam had earlier claimed that there might be as many as 17 people inside the mine.
The miners have been trapped since Thursday morning when water flooded the illegally-operated mine. Personnel of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) started rescue operations from Friday morning, but have failed to trace the miners as their movement has been impeded by the large volume of water inside.
A team of 72 personnel from NDRF, including three officers, along with another squad of about 20 SDRF personnel, are engaged in the operations since last Friday.
The rescue operation is also hamstrung by inadequate equipment, particularly electrical pumps, to drain out the water from the mine shaft.
East Jaintia Hills Deputy Commissioner FM Dopth has written to the state government asking for at least 10 pumps.
“We pump out the water throughout the day, but in the morning the water would be back to its earlier level. We suspect that the mine is connected to the nearby river,” the Deputy Commissioner said.
Dopth said that the only option was to bring in bigger pumps. However, such pumps are scarce in the entire region and have to be brought from outside. “The state government would need to take a call since we will need to airlift these pumping machines to the mine site,” he said.
Dopth said that the divers of the NDRF would not be able to enter the mines if the water level did not come down.
“We are facing a very difficult situation. We only hope that the situation would improve,” he added.
“The undulating road from the base camp to the site was rendered slushy by the downpour today and it took the rescue team two hours to walk to the site. We will again start our operations tomorrow morning,” Santosh Kumar, assistant commandant, NDRF (1st Battalion), told The Shillong Times on Tuesday evening.
