Water recedes at Assam coal mine where miners are trapped

Water levels in the 300-feet deep flooded coal mine in Assam’s Dima Hasao district receded by nearly 23 feet on Friday, boosting rescue efforts to locate eight workers trapped inside, The Hindu reported.

Not much progress had been made in locating the workers, who have been trapped inside the illegal rat-hole mine in the industrial town of Umrangso since Monday, despite efforts to drain the water using heavy pumps and scan the vertical shaft using sonar equipment.

However, the process of dewatering, or draining three abandoned mines within 500 metres of the flooded one, helped lower the water levels inside, District Magistrate Simanta Kumar Das said on Friday.