NEW DELHI, June 17 (UNI) Expert divers from the Indian Navy were today rushed to Jharkhand where 14 miners have been trapped in the Saunda coalmine since Wednesday following a roof cave-in.
According to the Navy's Spokesman Commander Vinay Garg, nine naval divers headed by Comander RK Caroli flew this afternoon from here to Ranchi with some 2,000kg of specialised equipment which they expect to use in their efforts to rescue the miners trapped in the Central Coalfields Limited's Saunda mine in Bansagara, Jharkhand.
The team was despatched within hours of the request received from the Coal Ministry by the Ministry of Defence which then ordered the mission, Cdr Garg said.
On June 14-15 night, 14 miners comprising 2 supervisors and 12 loaders were trapped when the roof of the mine they were working in caved-in.
Immediately thereafter, the mine got flooded by subterranean water thwarting rescue efforts.
With the total quantity of water flow from the upper seam to the lower seam estimated at 6.8 million gallons, two pumps of 500 gallons per minute (GPM) capacity and one pump of 1,000 GPM have already been commissioned two more pumps of 2,000 GPM and 500 GPM, respectively, were proposed to be installed by tomorrow.
The naval divers were expected to launch the rescue operation as soon as the water level reached within their operation limit.
