SHILLONG: The Indian Navy on Tuesday operated its underwater remotely-operated vehicle (ROV) in the main shaft of the mine at Ksan in which 15 miners are trapped since December 13 without any hindrance after dewatering was stopped and the submersible mines removed.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday cited the mishap while reprimanding the state government for not being able to stop illegal coal mining despite it being banned by the NGT.
Kirloskar Bothers Limited was tasked with draining out water from the main shaft and it had installed two high-powered submersible pumps inside for the purpose. However, the pumps and their accessories were coming in the way of the ROV from working freely. It had got entangled a couple of times, the last being on Sunday night.
The Shillong Times had reported in its January 14 edition of the possibility of dewatering of the main shaft being stopped as it was not helping to reduce the water level and, instead, the process was hindering the ROV’s work. Officials sources on Tuesday said the Kirloskar pumps have been shifted to another mine. A few other mines in the close vicinity of the ill-fated one are also being dewatered on the assumption that all are interlinked and hence pumping out water from the other mines could help reduce the water level in the main mine shaft.
The rescue work started on December 14 with two 25 HP pumps in action. Since then, several high-powered pumps have been deployed and lakhs of litres of water have been pumped out from the mines, but there has been no change in the water level.
Meanwhile experts from National Geophysical Research Institute, National Institute of Hydrology and Planys Technology continued their various survey work.
