KOLKATA: Senior officials of Coal India Ltd (CIL) said on Thursday that chances of a quick rescue of the 14 miners trapped in the Suanda Colliery in Jharkhand was remote, even as CIL chairman Sashi Kumar rushed to the site.

CIL sources said rescue of the miners trapped since early Wednesday morning, hinged upon "finding the air pocket where they were trapped."

Though the water level had started receding there was still a substantial amount of water swirling around the hapless workers.

An estimated 30 lakh gallons of water or more, gushed into the mine after the wall of the mine collapsed.

The sources aid efforts were on to pump out water as fast as possible. In addition to two pumps of 500 gallons per minute in operation, two higher capacity pumps would be used.

"We plan to harness six pumps altogether as it was important to lower the water level very fast," an official said. "There have been instances of miners surviving even after seven days," the sources said.

Nearly 40 miners died in 2001 in an accident at the Bharat Coking Coal Ltd's Bagridih colliery.

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