Two hydropower workers were pulled alive from a blocked tunnel at the Trishuli 3A Hydropower Project in Nepal on Friday, September 4, nine days after catastrophic flash floods struck the Himalayan region, according to RTE.ie. The men were identified as 30-year-old Sanjay Shah, a mechanical foreman, and 45-year-old Kabir Maharjan, a mechanical supervisor, according to Home Minister Sudan Gurung as reported by RTE.ie. Both workers were trapped inside the tunnel when ice, rock, and a mudslide swept through the area on August 26, following a vast glacial and rock collapse on a mountain near the Nepal-Tibet border.
Two Hydropower Workers Rescued Alive After Nine Days in Nepal Tunnel
The disaster left thousands of people dead or missing across the region. According to disaster authorities and RTE.ie, the floods and subsequent debris flows killed at least 1,287 people in Nepal, with 5,083 people remaining missing. In Tibet, Chinese state media reported 31 people killed and 541 missing. Officials believe that a glacier collapse in the upper reaches of the Trishuli River trapped at least 900 people in tunnels related to six hydropower projects along the river, with at least 12 hydropower projects smashed by the floods overall.
Rescue Operations and Survival Inside the Trishuli 3A Tunnel
Rescue teams led by the Nepal Army, aided by international experts from India, China, and South Korea, had repeatedly encountered walls of hard-packed debris, boulders, and slush. Rescuers used drilling machines, excavators, hydraulic cutters, and tactical explosives to force their way inside, travelling 180 meters to reach the workers after hearing their voices from halfway through the tunnel, according to AOL.com.
Mr. Shah recounted that he was working in the control room when the flooding hit. Rather than fleeing immediately, he stayed behind to help others escape. I was working in the control room. My responsibility was to save everyone’s life,
Mr. Shah told a medical team from the Nepali army, adding, I told everyone to run. In doing that, my time was lost.
He stated that he survived by continuously chanting the ‘Hare Krishna Mahamantra’. Meanwhile, Mr. Maharjan had travelled to the project from the Kulekhani hydropower project for scheduled maintenance work and had been working at Trishuli-3A for seven years.
International Expertise and Medical Evacuation
Australian tunnel rescue expert Arnold Dix, president of the International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association, provided remote guidance for the rescue operation using engineering techniques, maps, and satellite imagery to help pinpoint the buried tunnel entrance. Mr. Dix previously served as a key adviser during the 2023 Uttarkashi tunnel rescue in India that freed 41 trapped workers. Describing the Trishuli 3A operation, Mr. Dix stated that the rescue efforts were back in miracle country
after a week of round-the-clock heartache, noting that teams believed they had received a faint response from inside saying hunchha
(yes or OK).
Videos and photographs released by the Nepali authorities and the Nepal Army showed Mr. Maharjan being pulled out of a hole in the ground, placed on a stretcher, and airlifted to Kathmandu, while Mr. Shah was carried out on the back of a worker to a rescue tent. An aide to the energy minister told Reuters that Mr. Maharjan could not move his hands and legs, while Mr. Shah’s injuries were not critical. Both survivors were transported to a hospital in Kathmandu for medical treatment as search and rescue operations continued at Trishuli-3A and other affected sites.
