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Body floats out, hopes still alive: DGMS

"A body was discovered from the adjacent Jairampur colliery side during dewatering operations on Monday morning, but our hopes have not entirely faded," DGMS Director R L Arora told PTI.

However, Amit Prakash, leader of the diving team from Bombay told PTI, "We found no air pockets and no sign of life."

"We are used to diving in the ocean, but this is the first time we have been inside a mine," Prakash added.

Arora said, "According to calculations from our map of the underground area, some miners were working at a higher level when water rushed in on Friday. These miners could have taken shelter and may be alive as the navy divers were not able to access these areas on Sunday."

"The mission by the navy divers is not a futile one," he insisted.

"The five member diving team from Bombay and the six member team from Visakhapatnam, both from the Navy, will undertake one, possibly two missions on Monday to reach areas still unexplored. They are jointly working out their strategy before diving into the flooded mine," the DGMS Director said.

Detailing what happened on Friday, Arora said, 16 million gallons of water swept into the Bagdigi mine from Jairampur, but only 10 million gallons submerged the mine shaft, the rest flowed out. "Of this, two million gallons have been pumped out till Monday morning."

General Manager, Lodna Colliery, P K Sinha, who is co-ordinating the dewatering operations informed that 12 pumps were working to drain out the water.

"If the pumps work round the clock, the water level will go down sufficiently for rescue teams to venture in," he said.

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