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Navy divers, rescue team
enter flooded mine

Deputy Director General of Mine Safety A K Rudra volunteered to accompany the divers to the shaft 614 metres underground, Coal India Limited sources said in Calcutta.

Rescue work was taking place under arduous and very restrictive conditions, as pumps engaged for dewatering as well as pipes had to be lowered through the cage (lift) and transported manually to the site, which was 500 metres away from the pit, the sources said.

The pumps, which were dewatering the mine at the rate of 200,000 gallons of water per hour, would take another 48 hours to bring the water level down, the sources said.

The rescue efforts suffered a setback when one of the seven pumps broke down, the sources added.

A rescue team equipped with gas masks and oxygen cylinders were also inside the mine to locate possible survivors, BCCL sources said in Dhanbad.

The miners were trapped when 60 million gallons of water gushed in from adjacent Jairampur mine breaching a barrier.

Mining experts, after studying the underground plans of the Bagdigi mine, said the thickness of the barrier, between Bagdigi and adjacent Joirampur mines at Lodna area, was reduced to 60 feet from 80 feet possibly to extract more coal.

As the thickness of the barrier was reduced by 20 feet, it could not withstand the heavy water surge from the adjacent mine, they opined.

"The 80-feet thick barrier stood like a strong wall between the two mines," they said.

Coal Minister T Shanmugan has postponed his visit to the disaster site, the sources said without citing any reason.

Boring operations from the surface, which began on Friday evening to establish contact with the miners, continued till late Saturday night, the sources said.

EARLIER REPORT
38 miners feared dead

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