Nepal Army Digs Through Flooded Hydropower Tunnel As Search For Missing Workers Continues

Nepali Army teams and project representatives are continuing search and rescue operations inside debris-filled hydropower tunnels after the August 26 glacial collapse and flash flood on the Bhotekoshi and Trishuli.

At the Upper Trishuli 3A project, crews are working through rocks, mud and standing water with excavators, ropes and hand tools. Soldiers and firefighters have also entered flooded sections using harnesses, ropes and flashlights.

At Chilime Hydro, about 100 meters of debris has been removed with an excavator and loader. Water inside the tunnel has slowed the operation, with rescuers using ropes to try to move farther inside.

Searches are also continuing at Mathillotrishuli 1 and the Trishuli 3A powerhouse and tunnel areas. At Trishuli 3B, a joint team is searching the project housing, office building and tunnel area with an excavator and backhoe loader.

At the Langtang Hydroelectric project, a joint team including foreign technicians has so far found nothing in the tunnel being searched.

Nine days after the disaster, on September 4, army teams at Upper Trishuli 3A heard voices and rescued two workers alive. They were mechanical foreman Sanjay Sah, 30, and mechanical supervisor Kabir Maharjan, 45. A third worker was found dead that day.

Sah later said he survived by drinking seepage water and believed others could still be alive deeper inside. Hundreds of hydropower workers remained missing across several tunnel sites. The two survivors were flown to an army hospital in Kathmandu.