on-day-4-deep-divers-and-heavy-pumps-join-assam-mine-rescue

Rescue operations by multiple state and central agencies continued for the fourth day on Thursday to locate trapped miners inside an illegal rat-hole coal mine in Dima Hasao district of Assam.

The search operations resumed early in the morning after a night-long dewatering exercise.

A Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) has entered the flooded shaft, but so far, no sign of the trapped miners has been detected, a senior Assam Police official said.

"Despite the hostile conditions and blackened water making visibility almost impossible, the ROV is making a determined effort to locate the trapped miners," he added.

Four deep divers from the Navy also joined the rescue efforts, going into the flooded shaft to locate the trapped miners.

The joint effort includes the Navy, Army, NDRF, SDRF, ONGC, Coal India, and the district administration to trace the workers.

The miners were trapped inside the 3-Kilo Coal Quarry in Umrangso area, approximately 250 km from Guwahati, after a sudden gush of water flooded the site on Monday.

Also read: One trapped worker’s body recovered from Assam coal mine

Employees at the quarry reported that there were around 15 workers inside the illegal mine when water breached a wall and inundated the entire shaft and tunnels.

One body was recovered on Wednesday, identified as Ganga Bahadur Srestho from Udaypur district, Nepal.

Coal India has flown in a heavy-duty pressure pump with a capacity of 500 gallons per minute from Maharashtra, which reached Silchar airport in neighbouring Cachar district.

A Mi-17 chopper will transport the pump parts in multiple sorties for assembly on-site. Currently, six pumps are working, but heavy siltation in the water is hampering their effectiveness.

Authorities have confirmed that this was a "complete rat-hole mine," which is entirely illegal following a ban by the relevant authorities. The National Green Tribunal (NGT) had banned rat-hole mining in 2014, but coal is still extracted using this dangerous method in the Northeast.

The shaft itself is 310 feet deep, with multiple channels carved through the rat-hole technique. Experts suggest that a wall of one channel may have breached, leading to sudden flooding.

Another possibility is that a channel reached an unused nearby mine, or an underground reservoir, resulting in a rapid influx of water.