Meghalaya: A fortnight after 15 miners remain stranded in Meghalaya’s East Jaintia Hill, three helmets have been recovered on Saturday morning from the site of the coal mine accident.
Assistant Commandant Santosh Kumar Singh from the 1st Battalion of NDRF said: “three helmets have been recovered”.
The miners are trapped in a 370-feet deep illegal mine in Lumthari village in the district since December 13, when water from the nearby River Lytein flooded the mine.
With the state government not possessing high-pressure pumps, the search operations were called off by the Meghalaya government and soon a 15-member diving team of the Indian Navy from Vishakhapatnam left for Meghalaya on Friday with specialised equipment, including high-pressure pumps.
The Indian Air Force (IAF) also provided two aircraft to the Meghalaya government for airlifting specialist personnel of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) from Odisha for helping in the rescue operations. The Defence Ministry has said it is prepared to provide any help to the state government.
Earlier, the IAF, Coal India Limited (CIL) and leading pump manufacturing company Kirloskar Brothers’ Limited joined the rescue effort.