Shillong Jan 12: A 14-member team from Chennai and Hyderabad along with equipment and smaller Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) were airlifted to Guwahati on Saturday to supplement the Indian Navy ROV in the operations to trace miners trapped inside a coal mine at Khloo Ryngksan in East Jaiñtia Hills district since December 13 last year.
The operation continued on Saturday by pumping out water from the main coal mine where the miners are trapped as well as old shafts near the main shaft.
Spokesperson for the operations, R. Susngi said that the Coal India Limited pumped out water from an old shaft for 21 hour since Friday evening 6pm till Saturday evening approximately 23,81,400 liters.
“They are also preparing to pump out water from the next old shaft,†he said.
The Odisha Fire Service operated their pumps to deliver water to the stream and the pumping started from 11:30am to 5pm approximately 4,05,000 litres while the Kirloskar Brothers Limited used two pumps to pump out water from the main shaft from yesterday evening 6pm till 5pm on Saturday with interval and rest in between for refueling their generator.
“The total discharge of water was 32,40,000 litersâ€
Susngi informed that another company KSB, a German company based in Pune joined the rescue operations on Saturday by using their 82HP pump that can discharge 1,98,000 litres of water per hour.
The PHE department has also undertaken the work to disinfect the contaminated water from the main shaft by using bleaching powder.