Shillong Jan 2: The Coal India Limited will start pumping out water on Thursday from the coal mine that trapped 15 labourers at Khloo Ryngksan in East Jaiñtia Hills district.
Coal India has brought its submersible pumps with 100 HP each that can discharge 500 gallon per minute.
“Preparation and fitting was in progress and sometime tomorrow morning (Thursday) it will be put inside the shaft and pumping will start,” East Jaiñtia Hills district public relations officer, R. Susngi said on Wednesday.
Earlier the Coal India Limited has decided to bring eight pumps to the site.
The Odisha Fire Services has already brought 10 high powered pumps to the site and they have started pumping out water from an old coal mine near the main coal mine where the labourers are being trapped.
“The Odisha Fire Services pumped out the water from an old shaft near the main shaft from 10.30am to 2.30pm. The water was pumped out maximum 1.2 lakh litres. The water level in the old shaft adjacent to the main shaft has decreased by a total of 16 inch as reported by an officer in-charge of the Odisha Fire Services by the time the closing of the pump at 5.10 pm,” Susngi said.
Commandant of the1st Battalion of NDRF, S K Shastri along with other officers visited the incident site and interacted with administration and senior officials of all agencies and took all the updates and progress of work that was going on at the site.
The labourers have been trapped inside the coal mine at Khloo Ryngksan since December 13 last year.
On December 30, the NDRF and Indian Navy personnel began their operation to locate the 15 miners who have been trapped inside the coal pit . The divers dived 70 feet down but could not locate the trapped miners.
On December 31, divers of the Indian Navy dived again and found some wooden structure and coal inside the coal pit after they stayed inside the mine for three hours.
