City firm clears landmines in Sri Lanka

Last week,the Horizon group signed its fourth contract for de-mining purposes in Sri Lanka. Each of these contracts is worth over Rs 2.5 crore. “The pace of our work has increased many times over since the Indian government intervened and began funding projects in Sri Lanka in July. Now we have over four teams that are into de-mining; prior to this there was just one.

Three of them are funded by the government of india. One is by the government of norway,” said Col (retd) Navneet Mittal,Director of the group. The Horizon group started its work in Sri Lanka in 2003. Around then Horizon,a Delhi-based ex servicemen group Sarvatra and a Sri Lankan body MMIPE formed a consortium to de-mine northern sri lanka including districts like Mannar and Varuniya.

Since then it has recovered as many as 51,967 mines,unexploded ammunition and small arms. “The Horizon Group alone has cleared more than 61 lakh sq metres,” Mittal said.

To carry out its project,Horizon conducts a refresher course for its servicemen in Wadagaon Sheri in Pune. “Nearly all the people working with us are from the corps of engineers of the army and they already know enough about combat de-mining. All we do is to reorient them to the humanitarian aspect of de-mining,Mittal said.

Several other countries including Denmark,Norway,UK and US are into de-mining efforts in Sri Lanka,besides India.

Horizon itself has around 60 odd personnel deputed in Sri Lanka. It has also hired many local Sri Lankans. While Sri Lanka is now in the midst of its raining season in November and December,the pace of the work is expected to increase further from January.