‘Communicated with noises’: Rescued Nepal Hydropower tunnel worker says more trapped inside project
Two men have been rescued alive from the Trishuli 3A hydropower tunnel in Nuwakot, Nepal, after nine days of search since the flood
Two individuals have been rescued alive from the Trishuli 3A hydropower tunnel in Nuwakot, Nepal, after an ordeal lasting nine days. The rescued men were trapped following a flood incident at the project, and preliminary reports suggest that additional workers may still be confined within the extensive tunnel network.
Two individuals have been rescued alive from the Trishuli 3A hydropower tunnel in Nuwakot, Nepal, after an ordeal lasting nine days. The rescued men were trapped following a flood incident at the project, and preliminary reports suggest that additional workers may still be confined within the extensive tunnel network.
Two individuals have been rescued alive from the Trishuli 3A hydropower tunnel in Nuwakot, Nepal, after an ordeal lasting nine days. The rescued men were trapped following a flood incident at the project, and preliminary reports suggest that additional workers may still be confined within the extensive tunnel network.
One of the two men rescued alive from the hydropower tunnel in Nuwakot, Nepal, on Diday told rescuers that there could be more workers trapped inside the tunnel, including around the powerhouse.
The two men were trapped inside the Trishuli 3A hydropower project for nine days as rescuers blew up rocks and used excavators to dig through mud and concrete in a frantic search for about 42 hydropower plant workers trapped at the site. The men were taken to a military hospital for treatment.
Sanjay Sah, one of the rescued workers, when asked about others at the site, said. “There could be. Not everyone may have been able to escape. The tunnel is very long,” he said, adding that the force of the floodwater could have carried people deeper inside, the Kathmandu Post reported.
Sah, 30, worked as a mechanical foreman at the project and hails from Saptari district in eastern Nepal.
He also recounted the events before the floodwaters covered up the projects.
“I was working in the control room. My responsibility was to save everyone’s life,” Sah told a medical team from the Nepali Army.
He had urged the other workers to run after the accident, but by the time the other left, it was too late for him to escape.
“I told everyone to run. In doing that, my time was lost. In the end, I could not get out,” he said.
Sah said he spent the time inside chanting a mantra as he waited to be rescued.
He also said that he communicated with about three or four people in his vicinity who were also trapped by “talking or making noises”
Another worker, Kabir Maharjan, a mechanical supervisor from Kathmandu, was also rescued on Friday. Sah is in stable condition, while Maharjan is in critical condition and under intensive care, according to the PMO.
According to a Nepal Army list released on Thursday, the Nepal Army, along with Indian and Chinese experts, is looking for about 900 workers trapped at various hydropower projects in the region; about 557 are missing at Upper Trishuli-1.