Kathmandu, September 4
For 10 days, Bidya Dangol did not know whether she would see her brother Kabir Maharjan again. Maharjan, from Lalitpur, was trapped inside the Trishuli 3A hydropower project tunnel after the devastating flood in Rasuwa on August 26 blocked the tunnel entrance.
On Friday, 10 days after the flood, he was finally brought out alive.
A Nepal Army-led rescue team, working with technical personnel, located and safely rescued Maharjan and another person trapped inside the tunnel. Maharjan was brought to Kathmandu and taken to hospital, where his treatment has begun.
His sister Dangol rushed to the Military Hospital in Chhauni after learning that her brother had been brought there. She was still waiting to see him when she spoke to reporters.
“We are very happy today. I heard that my brother has been brought here. I haven’t been able to see him yet, but I am relieved,” she said.
The relief, she said, was difficult to put into words.
“He is safe. That is all that matters. We are extremely happy. There is no limit to our happiness,” she said. “My brother had been in there for 10 days. All of us sisters came here to see him. We had almost lost hope. We never imagined that something like this could happen.”
On Friday morning, before she knew her brother had been found, Dangol had prayed for his safety.
“I performed puja in the morning. I was praying to God that nothing would happen to my brother,” she said.
After completing the puja, she checked her phone while having tea.
“I saw the news on my phone. I became extremely happy and immediately called my younger sister,” she recalled. “I told her, ‘Maya, this has happened, right?’ She said, ‘Yes, sister.’ We were so happy. I just said, ‘Oh God, thank you a million times.’”
Maharjan worked as a supervisor at the Trishuli 3A project.
His rescue has also brought a renewed sense of hope to families waiting for news about others still believed to be trapped or missing following the flood.
Dangol said she was now praying for the safe rescue of everyone still inside the tunnel.
Another person was also rescued alive from the Trishuli 3A tunnel on Friday.
