Miners’ rescue still a far cry

Shillong, June 5: Efforts to rescue the miners trapped since Sunday last continued to be hampered by absence of equipment and complicated mine routes underground, even though dewatering exercise made a small progress on Saturday.
Rescue attempts being made by over 60 people, including NDRF and SDRF personnel, at Krem Ule at Umpleng in East Jaintia Hills did not make big strides even as the possibility of the mine shaft being connected with a 330-ft abandoned shaft has emerged.
East Jaintia Hills Deputy Commissioner, Ethelbert Kharmalki, quoting an NDRF report, said on Saturday that the mine where the labourers are trapped is possibly connected with another mine shaft which is 330 feet deep and filled with 152 feet of water.
The district administration has written to the Director of Land Records to deploy a survey team to study the water level of the two shafts which are at an aerial distance of 270 metres from each other and likely to be connected through an underground tunnel. A similar study was undertaken during the Ksan rescue operation in 2018-19.
Kharmalki further said that Coal India Limited, Guwahati has informed the district administration that they do not have 25 HP water pumps at their disposal and have advised the administration to take up the matter with the Union Ministry of Coal. “We have requested the state government to take up the matter with the Coal Ministry at the earliest,” he said.
On the status of the rescue operation on Saturday, the DC said that the rescue teams consisting of NDRF, SDRF and SRT arrived at the incident site to commence the operation at around 9.15 am after verifying the water level found that it had receded by about 20 feet from the previous day’s level. The teams have not been able to ascertain whether the water has receded due to pumping or natural seepage since there was no rainfall on Friday.
“Around midday the submersible water pumps were replaced and dewatering continued till evening. A 200 KV generator has been brought to the site to augment the power backup,” Kharmalki added.