Lumthari Coal Mine Tragedy: High power pumps of Coal India put to be used today

Mine tragedy

A Correspondent

SHILLONG: The high power submersible pumps sent by the Coal India Limited to de-water the flooded mine shaft in Meghalaya’s, East Jaintia Hills district, where 15 miners are trapped has arrived at the site and will be put to use from Thursday, authorities involved in the rescue operation said on Wednesday. “Preparation and fitting is in progress and sometime tomorrow (Thursday) morning it will be put inside the shaft and pumping will be started,” spokesperson of the rescue team R Susngi said.

It may be mentioned that, these high capacity submersible pumps of 100 horsepower each can pump out 500 gallons of water per minute. Unlike the pumps brought by the NDRF team of the Odisha Fire Service which has to be manually taken inside the pit the submersible pumps of Coal India Limited no one has to go down and can be started from the surface.

These high power submersible pumps were dispatched by the Coal India Limited from its various subsidiaries since December 26. A team of officials from the Coal India Limited are also at the site to oversee the rescue operation. Meanwhile, on Thursday, the NDRF team from the Odisha Fire Service resumed the pumping of water from the old shaft nearby the main pit where the 15 miners are trapped.

According to Susngi, the pumps were used for 4 hours from 10:30 am to 2:30 pm. “Maximum water of about 1,20,000 liters was pumped out,” the Spokesperson said. “The water level in the old shaft adjacent to the main shaft decreased by a total of 16 inches,” Susngi said. This according to him was reported by the officer in-charge Odisha Fire Service by the time the pump was closed at 5:10 pm.

Also read: Lumthari Coal Mine Tragedy: Pumping of water starts in nearby shafts