The ill-fated Ksan coal mine in Meghalaya’s East Jaintia Hills district has become sort of the ‘Water of India’, one of the most popular magic tricks performed by renowned magician P C Sorkar.
Like Sorkar’s magic trick where water used to pour into the empty jug from nowhere with his chanting of “Gilly Gilly Choo” and “Water of India”, there seems to be no end to pumping out of water by the rescuers from the ill-fated coal mine.
The pumps used by the Kirloskar Borthers’ Limited, the Fire Service Odhisha and the Coal India Limited have been pumping out millions of litres of waters from Ksan coal mine and other mines adjacent to it but the water level is yet to reach the desired level where the Indian Navy divers could go in searching for trapped miners.
“The pump performed very well and the pumping was carried out from the main shaft, pumping continued till 11.30 am this morning which when calculated it was run for 16 hours. The total water pumped out was 28,80000 litres. Other pumps by the Coal India limited pumped out 2075220 litres,” said a bulletin issued by the rescuers on Thursday.
“The Indian Navy reported that they have searched six mines including the main shaft using Under Water Remotely Operated Vehicles (UWROV) and at present they reported that search was completed in the old shaft that is to be taken up by the Coal India limited,”said the bulletin.
A total of 15 miners are believed to have been trapped inside the mine from December 13. The mine got flooded when they were inside the mine. While five of the workers in operation could managed to escape miraculously, the rest were believed to have been tapped.