Saviour of 65 souls

GS Paul

The valour shown by Amritsar-based former additional chief mining engineer Jaswant Singh Gill, who had evacuated 65 coal-miners trapped in a water-logged mine in West Bengal, in 1989, will now be showcased in a Bollywood film. 

Action hero Ajay Devgn has acquired the rights of this real-life story. In all probability, Ajay Devgn will essay the role of Gill, known as hero of Raniganj Coalfield rescue operation. Confirming the development, Gill, now 77, living a quite life in Amritsar, told that a team of Ajay Devgn Films Ltd had approached him and procured the minute details of the first-ever rescue operation designed by him. 

True story

“Besides this, they also gathered information about my family background, my college life and later on experience. The legal and professional formalities about the story rights have now been reserved with Ajay Devgn,” he says. On November 13, 1989, as many as 220 miners were breaking coal walls by triggering blasts. All of a sudden the wall of an underground table next to their site cracked and the water started flooding in. 

This accident claimed six lives while those near the lift were pulled out. However, 65 miners were still trapped underneath. It was next to impossible to enter the uneven borehole, which could collapse anytime, as the water in the pit was rising steadily. Besides, oxygen was going to deplete. However, Gill was determined to save the 65 lives. 

Tough call

He recounted that how hard he had to convince Coal India chairman to allow him to venture inside the 110-feet deep mine. At last, Gill, a product of Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad, devised a six-foot high iron capsule with 21-inch diameter. This capsule was pierced down by drilling a fresh borehole. 

“Over 20,000 people had assembled to witness the tension-charged rescue operation. On the intervening night of November 15-16, 1989, I went inside the mine at around 2.30 am and culminated the operation successfully by 8.30 am. To expedite the operation, a 12-tonne crane was put into service for lowering and raising the capsule. It took me six hours to bring up the 65 miners one by one and last of all, when I emerged from the capsule, people went mad with joy. They lifted me on their shoulders and honoured me with garlands. The scene cannot be described in words. I am excited to see the imagination of the film-makers to re-create this glorious chapter in the history of Indian mining,” he adds.

Brave act

Gill’s act of bravery is celebrated as Rescue Day by Coal India Limited every year on November 16. To recognise his accomplishment, the Limca Book of Records has specially certified this operation as a national record in the history of coal mining.

He was also awarded the Sarvottam Jeevan Raksha Padak by President Ramaswamy Venkataraman in 1991.  Ironically, Gill, a graduate from Amritsar’s Khalsa College, didn’t get any recognition from the successive state governments. 

For his son and his family too, Gill has been the greatest source of inspiration. “He has been inspirational in shaping our perspective for life,” shares his son, Dr SS Gill.