Dhanbad | Dec 13, 2017:

A competition to test the rescue prowess of the men involved in helping workers trapped in mines kicked off on Monday at the 2 pit incline mine of Jamadoba Colliery of Tata Steel.

Being jointly organised by Tata Steel and Steel Authority of India Limited, as many as 24 teams - 18 from coal mines and six from metal mines - from 16 different organisations are competing with each other at the five-day competition.

Some of the participating organisations are Tata Steel, Central Coalfields Limited, Bharat Coking Coal Limited, Steel Authority of India Limited , Manganese Ore (India) Limited, Singreni Collieries Company, Western Coalfields, Eastern Coalfields, South Eeastern Coalfields, Hindustan Zinc Limited, Hindustan Copper Limited, Hutti Gold Mines Company, North Eastern Coalfields, Mahanadi Coalfields Limited, Hindustan Aluminium Corporation Limited and Uranium Corporation of India Limited.

While the registration of the participants took place on Monday at Sir Dorabjee Park in Jamadoba, the inaugural session was held on Tuesday.

Speaking on the sidelines of the competition, Girija Shankar Tiwari, coach of the seven-member mines rescue team of Tata Steel, Jharia Division, said "Carrying out rescue work in mines involves a lot of risk and tests the patience of rescue workers. But ultimately the satisfaction that you get after saving someone's life is inexplicable."

Sharing his experience, Tiwari, who had carried out rescue work as part of Tata Steel on several occasions and also took part in three mines rescue competitions in Australia (2010), Ukrain (2012) and Poland (2016), said, "In 2007, the 6 and 7 pit collieries of Tata Steel had caught fire and I was a part of the rescue team. The level of carbon monoxide inside the colliery had gone high and there was dense smoke everywhere. Thankfully we could breathe with the help of a breathing apparatus and somehow managed to rescue the workers."

At the mine competition, participants were evaluated on the basis of three main parameters namely theory test that was held online, first-aid and rescue recovery.

(Source: https://www.telegraphindia.com/)