Twenty-nine-years ago, for the first time in the history of mining in India, 64 miners trapped below the ground were rescued through a large diameter borehole drilled from the surface.
The hero of the rescue operation was Mr Gill, who risked his own life and went down the borehole in the capsule and organized evacuation of the trapped miners.
Mr Gill has vivid memories of what happened on that day at the Mahavir Colliery of Eastern Coal Field Ltd on 13th November 1989.
He told SBS that many coal miners were trapped underground while the water table adjacent to where they were working cracked after a blast and water gushed in.
“There were 220 miners working at the site, 6 of them lost their lives and those closest to the lift were quickly pulled out while 64 still remained trapped,” he said.
Jaswant Singh Gill who was posted at that time as the Additional Chief Mining Engineer at the Raniganj area of West Bengal volunteered to bring the miners back up.
The rescue operation, planned and conducted by Mr Gill, concluded at 9am on 16 November 1989 - the exact time when all the 65 people were taken out from the coal mine.
“The authorities had different approaches. First, they tried to use pumps to reduce the water level inside the mine. But this didn’t prove too effective. Moreover, it would have taken them at least 60 to 90 days to get the water out."
That's when Mr Gill's plan was put in place.
Jaswant Singh Gill standing by side of iron capsule at CMPDI museum, Ranchi. Source: Supplied
“We drilled another well to send a rescue capsule to pull them out. A 2.5 m tall steel capsule was fabricated on the spot. It was attached to an iron rope and crane to be lowered into the pit. I volunteered to go down for this rescue mission,” he said.
“You only get one life, you need to make it count…Everything happened so suddenly that no one had the time to think.”
Mr Gill helped ‘badly shaken and tired miners’ to use the capsule and come to the surface.
Such was his passion and dedication that he came out in the last after giving courage and strength to the trapped miners.
As he finally stepped out of the capsule he was greeted by scores of onlookers who erupted into celebratory applause and carried him on their shoulders.
Over 20,000 people had assembled to witness the tension-charged rescue operation. Source: Supplied
Two years later, in 1991, Mr Gill was honoured with the Sarvottam Jeevan Raksha Padak by the President of India.
His name has been included in the Limca Book of Records as the national record holder for the most successful & largest rescue operation in the mining history.
Coal India also honoured him with a lifetime achievement award. His historic act of bravery on November 16 is celebrated by Coal India Ltd as ‘Rescue Day’.
A Bollywood movie is set to showcase Gill, also known as hero of Raniganj Coalfield rescue operation. Source: Supplied
