Nepal Floods: 93 Workers Missing Inside Tunnel, Thermal Drone Search Underway
Thermal drone search finds no trace of 93 missing workers.
Rescuers searching a flood-hit hydropower project in Nepal have reached the far end of a tunnel where 93 workers were feared trapped, but a thermal drone search found no survivors. The search was carried out at the 111-megawatt Rasuwagadhi Hydropower Project in Rasuwa district after severe flooding in the Bhote Koshi River raised concerns that workers could have been stranded underground.
The rescue operation involved Nepali Army personnel, engineers and a specialist drone team. After entering the tunnel, the team used thermal drones to inspect the far end and other areas that were difficult or potentially dangerous to access directly. The search found no indication that workers were present inside the tunnel, according to the Prime Minister’s Secretariat.
After the drone-assisted search was completed, the Army-led team abandoned the operation at the tunnel and returned to Dhunche in Rasuwa district on Monday. The development leaves the whereabouts of the 93 workers unresolved, with authorities yet to establish whether they managed to escape before the flooding, moved to safer areas or were swept away.
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The situation at Rasuwagadhi is part of a wider crisis affecting Nepal’s hydropower sector. Hundreds of workers were underground at several projects when devastating floods struck the country. Rescue teams have faced difficulties determining whether missing workers remain trapped inside tunnels or managed to reach higher ground.
Nepal’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority reported that 933 people associated with hydropower projects were missing as of Monday. Rescuers have so far brought 279 people out of hydropower tunnels, including 254 workers from the Upper Trishuli-1 project and 18 from the Langtang Khola site, according to the authorities.
The overall disaster has left more than 900 people dead and around 4,500 missing since the floods began on Wednesday. Separately, the Independent Power Producers’ Association, Nepal, reported that 897 workers at 11 hydropower projects across Rasuwa and Nuwakot remained out of contact. Rescue and search operations continue as authorities work to account for those still missing across the flood-affected areas.
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