Only less than ten square kilometres could be cleared of mines manually a day. The Indian organization has 52 Indian and 58 local workers...!!!

14 Anti-tank mines planted along Giant Tank bund

By Kelum Bandara

The Indian De-mining Organization, Sarvatra, said yesterday that it had recovered 14 anti-tank mines planted along the one kilometre stretch of the Mannar Giant tank bund which is now under renovation with Japanese financial assistance.

Sarvatra has been engaged in de-mining operations in Sri Lanka since 2003.

The organization said that it had expedited the mine clearance work in the ‘Rice Bowl’ area of Mannar so that it could complete the task before monsoon rain starts and hand over the lands for farmers to cultivate.

The Manager-Operation of Sarvatra, Mandir Singh told Daily Mirror yesterday that the area was a heavy mine field, and there were days when they recovered 200-300 anti-personal mines. Mr. Singh said only 10-20 mines were sometimes found in a day.

“We now use a special machine called Arjun machine which can remove any type of mine without exploding. There are eight such machines in our possession. The earth is very hard and dry. So, we use specially renovated water bowsers to sprinkle water on earth and wait for three hours. Then, we de-mine easily,” he said.

He said that his organization also carries out post clearance observation in the de-mined villages.

There are mine fields called ‘nuisance mine fields’ where the LTTE has planted mines here and there without any track record on them.

The LTTE-planted anti-tank mines are called ‘Amman 200’.

Besides, there are mines called ‘bar mines’ invented by the LTTE.

The organization said the places around the LTTE bunkers were heavily mined. Mr. Singh said that a mine worker could de-mine an area of 60-70 square kilometres a day with the use of machines.

However, only less than ten square kilometres could be cleared of mines manually a day. The Indian organization has 52 Indian and 58 local workers.

dailymirror.lk