The joint operations by multiple agencies at the illegal coal mine at Ksan in Meghalaya’s East Jaintia Hills district failed to trace the trapped miners till Tuesday even after Coal India Limited pumped out 10,91000 litres of water from the main shaft.
“The Indian Navy team has been carrying out simultaneous search operations using the Under Water Remotely Operated Vehicles (UWROV) in the shaft adjacent to the main shaft, which are believed to have been linked to the main shaft through rat holes,” an official bulletin issued by the rescuers on Tuesday evening.
“The UWROV operations have been able to identify four rate holes of the main shaft. The Indian Navy team could sanitising adjacent shaft through the UWROV and could put the UWROV up to 100 feet inside the two identified rat holes,” the bulletin said adding that diving is not feasible so far due to the water level.
“However, due to limited diameter of the bottom of the incident shaft, the UWROV operation could not commence,” it said adding that the UWROV operations in the adjacent shaft would continue.
The officials said that a total of five UWROV have been augmented on the side and simultaneous operations are being undertaken to maximize coverage.
It may be mentioned here that the coal India limited had started their pump at 9.30 am on Tuesday and stopped at 5 pm after running the pumps for 8 hours. The total water pump out on Tuesday is 240000 GPM or 10,91,000 litres .
The Fire Service Odhisa pumped out 5,40,000 litres of water from two old shafts using two pumps.
It may be mentioned here that 15 miners are believed to have been trapped when the Ksan mine got flooded on December 13 last year. Although the Indian Navy, SDRF, NDRF, Fire Service Odhisa and NDMA are working jointly to trace the trapped miners, nothing was found so far.’