KSAN/ SHILLONG: The 17-day-long rescue operations at a rat-hole coal mine here where 15 miners are trapped since December 13 when water flooded it, took a “significant step ahead” on Sunday when Navy divers reached close to the bottom of the perpendicular shaft from where it branches out into tunnels bearing the coal seams.
Till now, divers of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) had been able to reach up to depth of about 40 feet beyond which they are not capable. The NDRF has been engaged in the operations since December 14.
On the flip side though, high-power pumps brought in to dewater the mine to facilitate search and rescue operations were yet to become operational in the ill-fated mine.
However, the Odisha Fire Service team used some of the 10 pumps it has brought along to flush out water from a few of the abandoned mines in the vicinity, which are likely to be connected to the one where the miners are trapped.
It is suspected that water in the mine had come in after miners hit on one of the walls of an abandoned mine, and from the nearby Lytein river.
Assistant commandant of the NDRF’s 1st Battalion, Santosh Kumar Singh, told The Shillong Times that five Navy divers had managed to go close — about 70-80 feet from the surface — to the bottom of the shaft on Sunday.
“This is a significant step ahead and a positive sign,” he said, admitting that the Navy divers were more capable than their NDRF counterparts. An NDRF diver had accompanied those from the Navy as a “guide” in the approximately three-hour-long operation. The divers used an inflated boat of the NDRF as the diving platform. “They are starting from where we had gone,” he said.
He said the divers had essentially gone down to assess the conditions, particularly whether these were conducive to send down sophisticated equipment to help in the search for the miners. “The shaft gets progressively narrow as one goes down,” he said.
As of now, it is likely that they would be able to put down the equipment on Monday, he added.
Among other things, the equipment would be able to get images which could be analysed to identify objects.
“One thing is now nearly certain that there’s nobody in the main shaft,” he said, adding that the possibility was that the miners may be stuck in the lateral tunnels. “The first task now is to reach the mouth of the tunnels,” he said.
Odisha Fire Service Chief Fire Officer Sukanta Sethi told The Shillong Times they were preparing to pump out the water from Monday. “We plan to put two-three pumps inside and draw out the water in a relay to ensure continuity of flow,” he said adding a floating base would be required to be put in place for the pumps to rest.
He said it was to be also seen that the pumps do not disturb the divers. “There could be carbon dioxide issues because the diesel pump sets will emit smoke. Besides, there is also constraint of space inside the shaft,” he said.
On the other hand, Coal India Limited surveyors are at work to locate the points of seepage of water into the mine.
A team of 25 CIL personnel is at the site and survey teams are doing their job, CIL Kolkata GM A K Bharali said.