Kathmandu: Two men have been rescued alive from a tunnel at the Trishuli 3A hydropower project nine days after a flash flood tore through the Trishuli River corridor in central Nepal.
They have been identified as Kabir Maharjan, 45, a mechanical supervisor on the project, and Sanjay Sah, 30, a foreman, according to the Public Relations Directorate of the Nepal Army.
Maharjan has been flown to Kathmandu as his condition is said to be critical, while Sah is under treatment at the Trishuli hospital in Nuwakot, according to Raja Ram Basnet, Nepali Army spokesperson.
Maharjan’s wife said her husband, who is from Kathmandu, had been given a “second life” and thanked rescuers who risked their lives to save him.
“He has returned with a second life. We are extremely happy,” his wife, Hira Shobha, was quoted as saying by the Kathmandu Post. “We had been waiting. I am now going to the hospital to see my husband.”
She said the days had been an extremely painful and difficult time for her and her family. “It was so difficult to get through those days. It wasn’t one day or two days. We could neither eat nor sleep.”
“We believed he was still in there. We believed he would come back. We suffered because it took a little longer,” she said.
She thanked everyone involved in the rescue operation.
“It seems it takes a long time to carry out a rescue like this. They risked their own lives to save him,” she said. “My heartfelt thanks to the entire rescue team.”
Sah, who is from Saptari district in Madhesh province, said he stayed behind as others fled after the disaster because he felt responsible for everyone’s safety.
He said he was working in the control room when the accident occurred.
“I was working in the control room. My responsibility was to save everyone’s life,” Sah told a medical team from the Nepali Army after being pulled out of the tunnel.
He said he urged everyone to run after the accident, but by the time others had left, it was too late for him to escape.
Sah said he spent his time inside reciting a mantra as he waited to be rescued.
Asked how many people might still be trapped inside, he said he had heard or communicated with three or four people in his vicinity.
“There were only three or four people with whom we were able to communicate, nearby, by talking or making noises,” he said.
Sah also said there could be more people trapped deeper inside the tunnel, including around the powerhouse. “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 Nepal Army-led security command has been engaged in the search and rescue operation using specialised equipment.
The rescue followed an earlier breakthrough in which rescuers heard voices from inside the tunnel and established communication with people believed to be trapped there, the Kathmandu Post reported.
The Nepali Army and Armed Police Force intensified efforts to reach them after the voices were heard.
According to the Independent Power Producers’ Association of Nepal, more than 600 people working at 11 hydropower projects remain missing.
The death toll in Nepal due to the flash floods rose to 1,282 on Friday while more than 4,700 people remain missing.
The flash floods, triggered by an ice-rock avalanche near the Nepal-Tibet border on August 26, devastated towns and villages in northern and central Nepal, leaving a trail of destruction.