New Delhi, Aug 2 - Over 80 former Indian soldiers have left for Sri Lanka following the defeat of the Tamil Tigers to join Indians already there in clearing thousands of buried landmines.

The new group has teamed up with compatriots working since 2003, mainly in the northern districts of Mannar and Vavuniya, in defusing mines laid by both the military and the Tigers during their prolonged conflict.

While 50 of the latest batch of Indians are attached to the Pune-based Horizon Group, 32 are from Sarvatra Technical Consultants, a company that is based in Gurgaon, Haryana. Sarvatra will send 32 more men.

Both are led by retired Indian Army officers who are proud of what they have achieved so far and are keen to help Sri Lanka now that it is engaged in post-war construction.

'It has been a wonderful opportunity,' Horizon chief and retired Major General Shashikant Pitre told IANS over telephone from Pune, referring to the de-mining work.

'We are happy that we have been able to contribute to the building of Sri Lanka,' added retired Major General Prem K. Puri, the director (operations) of Sarvatra.

Both Pitre and Puri said that Basil Rajapaksa, advisor to his brother and President Mahinda Rajapaksa, was immensely happy with the work the Indians were doing.

Sri Lanka is one of the world's most heavily mined areas. There are no precise estimates about the number of mines the military and the LTTE buried in the island's north and east over the past quarter century.

The mines have killed and maimed thousands -- Tamils, Sinhalese, Muslims et al.

From 2003, Horizon and Sarvatra have been funded by Norway in the de-mining operations in the wake of an Oslo-brokered ceasefire. Although the truce later collapsed, the de-mining work did not halt.

The Indians were not the only ones clearing mines. Nearly a dozen companies were engaged in the task including one from Denmark. The Sri Lankan military is also now defusing mines in a big way.