The rescue operation at the flooded coal mine in Assam’s Dima Hasao district continued for the seventh day on January 12, a day after bodies of three more miners were retrieved.
“It is the 7th day of operation today. Four bodies have been recovered. Dewatering is being done, it cannot be ascertained how much time it will take, once it is done, the rescue will go on smoothly afterwards,” National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) Team Commander Roshan Kumar Singh told PTI this morning.
The statement comes after the total number of bodies recovered until now has risen to four. The search is on for five more labourers missing in the 300-feet quarry since January 6.
The three deceased, all residents of Assam, were identified as Ligen Magar (27) from Dima Hasao district, Khushi Mohan Rai (57) from Kokrajhar district, and Sarat Goyary (37) from Sonitpur district. On January 8, authorities had recovered the body of 38-year-old Nepal resident Ganga Bahadur Shrestha.
A united effort is being made by the Navy, Army, NDRF, SDRF, ONGC, Coal India, and district administration to trace the workers trapped inside.
On January 6, the labourers were trapped inside the 3-kilo coal quarry in Umrangso area, around 250 km from Guwahati, after a sudden gush of water flooded the site.
According to employees of the quarry, there were around 15 workers inside the illegal mine when water breached one of the walls and flooded the entire shaft and tunnels.
Local residents cited by national daily Hindustan Times said that around 40 people entered the mine at around 9am on Monday. The workers likely struck a source of water that flooded the mine, officials familiar with the matter told HT, adding that while most of the workers managed to escape, between nine and 15 were stuck.
