Kathmandu, August 30
A rescue team has located a tunnel that could provide access to workers believed to be trapped inside the Trishuli 3A Hydropower Project tunnel in Rasuwa.
The team, which has been conducting rescue operations continuously for the past three days, located the project’s “cable access tunnel,” according to Acting Managing Director of the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) Dirghayu Kumar Shrestha.
Shrestha told Onlinekhabar that a joint team of the Nepali Army, NEA personnel and tunnel experts found the tunnel used to take cables out of the powerhouse.
Rescuers are now preparing to send rescue experts through the tunnel to assess the situation inside and determine whether the trapped workers can be reached.
“People can enter through this tunnel, and it can also be used to rescue those trapped inside,” Shrestha said. “We made openings to send oxygen inside yesterday, so we hope those trapped are safe. We are making efforts to rescue them as soon as possible.”
The rescue team had earlier drilled five openings to send air into the tunnel and assess conditions inside.
Lawmaker and tunnel expert Shriram Neupane, who has been leading the rescue efforts at the site, said the team had been continuing drilling operations while trying to determine the condition inside the tunnel. He also confirmed that the access tunnel had been located.
According to the NEA, rescue efforts for workers trapped inside the project tunnel began only on Friday, two days after the floods struck.
Officials had grown increasingly concerned about the workers after rescue teams were unable to gain access to the tunnel for five days.
The NEA estimates that around 40 to 42 technical personnel, including highly experienced experts, were working on the overhaul of the underground powerhouse when they became trapped inside the tunnel.
