Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma on Thursday evening chaired a high-level meeting and discussed about the ongoing rescue operations to trace miners trapped inside a coal mine at Khloo Ryngksan in East Jaiñtia Hills district of the State.
The high-level meeting was held between officials of the State Government and various agencies involved in the rescue operations which include officials of the NDRF, Navy, Coal India, Odisha fire services, and Kirloskar.
The Meghalaya Chief Minister was briefed about the ongoing rescue operations and it was reported that nearly one crore litres of water have been pumped out from the coal mine where the miners have been trapped as well as from old mines in the area, yet the water level has not receded much.
Chief Minister Conrad Sangma said the situation looks like very difficult and challenging.
During the meeting, the CM asked those involved in the operation to continue dewatering the mines, while hoping that the water level would recede further.
Stating that illegal mining cannot be allowed, the Chief Minister also said that it was not possible for the administration to man every inch and feet of the State.
On Thursday, the Kirloskar pumps were again used and the pumping of water was carried out from the main shaft. Pumping of water continued till 11.30 am which when calculated since Wednesday evening, it has run for 16 hours. The total water pumped out is 28 lakhs 80,000 litres.
The Kirloskar again ran their pumps from 12 noon till 5 pm and able to pump out 45,0000 litres of water from the main shaft.
The Coal India Limited (CIL) was pumping from the old shaft from 6 pm on Wednesday to 6.30 am on Thursday and continued from 7 am till 1 pm with a total discharge of 20 lakh 75,220 litres of water.
As part of the rescue operation, rhe CIL started pumping again from 1 pm to 5 pm and the total water pump out was 4,53,600 litres.
The Coal India Ltd also inserted one more summersible pump in the shaft where pumping of water was done by the Odisha fire service in the past few days.
The Odisha Fire Service started pumping water from 12 noon till 5 pm with a total of 4,50,000 litres.
The Indian Navy reported that they have searched 6 mines including the main shaft and the search was completed in the old shaft.
The NDRF coordinated and assisted all agencies in this rescue operation work with all their resources available.
The pumping and dewatering the shafts is continuing.