SUBHASH MISHRA
Dhanbad, Sept 30: Bollywood star Akshay Kumar held an online interaction with IIT Indian School of Mines (ISM) Dhanbad students and faculty members over his upcoming film based on Jaswant Singh Gill, an alumnus of the institution, who had saved 64 miners trapped in inundated mines in 1989.
In an hour of online interaction held between 6.30 pm to 7.30 on Friday evening, Akshay Kumar joined live from London. During the interaction, he received a series of questions from the IIT ISM students and replied to them on different subjects, including a film on Jaswant Singh Gill.
IIT IISM Director Prof J K Pattanayak, who was present during the online interaction held at Penman Auditorium of the institution along with Deputy Director Prof Dheeraj Kumar and Prof Rajni Singh, dean (Media & Branding), and other faculty members greeted Akshay Kumar for the movie featuring the daredevilry act of Jaswant Singh Gill who was honoured with the Sarvottam Jeevan Raksha Padak by the then President Ramaswamy Venkataraman.
“During the interactive session with the IIT ISMites, Bollywood star Akshay Kumar impressed a lot and expressed his desire to visit IIT (ISM) Dhanbad,” said the director.
The interaction programme was an initiative by the IIT ISM alumnus association to make the world aware of the heroic work of one of the alumni Jaswant Singh Gill, Mining Engineering (1965 batch).
Who was Jaswant Singh Gill?
In 1989 water inundated an underground coal mine in Raniganj of Eastern Coalfield Limited (ECL) in West Bengal during mining in which 64 miners were trapped and there was no clue to their location in the mines.
Jaswant Singh Gill was posted in Mahabir Colliery of Eastern Coalfield Limited in Raniganj during the time of the incident. He on his initiative fabricated a 2.5-meter steel capsule on the spot.
The capsule was drilled inside the mine to the spot where 64 miners were believed to be trapped. Gill himself went inside the mine through the capsule and brought all the 64 miners one by one safely out on the surface.
IIT ISM director highly appreciated Akshay Kumar for the movie featuring the act of daredevilry of Jaswant Singh Gill who was honoured with the Sarvottam Jeevan Raksha Padak by the then President Ramaswamy Venkataraman two years after the incident in 1991 and Coal India also honoured him with a lifetime achievement award.
