Twenty tunnel experts from the Indian Army and NDRF, along with 37 Nepalese Army personnel engaged in the rescue operation are hopeful of a breakthrough in their search for 6 stuck workers at Nepal’s Chilime 22 MW hydro power project within the next 12-24 hours.
“There is a big boulder that has blocked the entry. Officials were unable to send food or water inside the underground power station and are also yet to receive any message from the men possibly trapped inside. However, rescuers are hoping that the six men could be alive as the station had drinking water, some space to move around, and the debris flow could have been blocked by the boulders.
After building a motorable approach road for excavators, the rescuers have cleared over 100 metres of debris and muck from this tunnel.The experts believed that a boulder may have blocked the entry of debris and muck inside the tunnel. Rescue operations have continued at different sites in Nepal for the last 18 days and, officials said, the rescuers here are hoping for a miracle.
At the time of the incident, the people inside were behind an underground tunnel, which has not collapsed,” an official aware of the matter said.
According to the latest update shared by Nepal’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority, at least 1,386 people have died and 5,130 people(including those missing at hydropower projects) are reported missing in the flash floods disaster. Though the government has not released data for those missing from hydropower projects, HT has seen data maintained by hydropower companies ,which showed 909 people at 11 hydropower project sites are yet to be accounted for.
