Source : INDIA TODAY NEWS
Rescue teams in Nepal are trying to trace 933 workers and employees from flood-hit hydropower projects who have been out of contact since August 26, as accounts from survivors underline the scale of the disaster. The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority said more than 600 people are believed to be stranded inside tunnels, while 279 have been rescued so far. Expert teams from India and China have joined Nepal’s efforts to locate and reach those still trapped.
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The flash floods, believed to have been triggered by a collapse or avalanche of ice and rock near the Nepal-Tibet border, devastated towns and villages in northern and central Nepal on August 26. Hundreds were killed and thousands remain missing. The Bhotekoshi River carried the floodwaters downstream, sweeping away homes, vehicles, roads and bridges and causing heavy damage to hydropower projects.
At the Mailung Hydropower Project in Rasuwa, Shiva Giri and six others climbed uphill as floodwaters swallowed everything below them. He told the Nepal News website that several of his colleagues were swept away, along with his cousin. Cut off from the usual routes to Timure and Dhunche, the group trekked through a forest for about 12 hours before finding a cave, where they spent the night. Giri, a technical employee at the project, said the group went down towards the site the next day, reported themselves as displaced and asked for rescue. A Nepali Army helicopter later evacuated them to Kathmandu, where Giri was receiving treatment at Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital, the report said.
At the Upper Trishuli-1 Hydropower Project, civil engineer Sandip Rana escaped by climbing a hillside with around 100 other employees. Rana told The Rising Nepal on Monday that an emergency siren went off while he was at the project office. Before employees could reach their designated assembly point, they were told that a massive flood had hit the dam site about 12 km upstream. The group climbed to higher ground and reached a point about 30 to 35 metres above the Trishuli River, from where they watched the project office, camps and roads disappear under the floodwaters. “We had to keep climbing while also watching for falling stones. There was no time to stop and think,” Rana told the newspaper. The group climbed for seven to eight hours before reaching a road in the Grang area around 4 pm. By the time Rana reached Kalikasthan, only two others were still with him and the rest had got separated.
Another survivor, identified as Ramchandra, survived inside a tunnel along the Trishuli River. Ratopati reported that Ramchandra and five colleagues were hundreds of metres from the tunnel exit when water began entering the passage. He held on to an iron ladder fixed along the tunnel roof to avoid being swept away. The six men used a sheet of tin to steady themselves and moved from one ladder to another for about six hours, Ramchandra said. “There were six of us, and later we met another person at the tunnel door.”
At the Upper Trishuli-3A Hydropower Project in Nuwakot, Nepali Army engineers have stepped up efforts to reach workers believed to be trapped inside a buried tunnel, using heavy equipment and blasting to widen an opening. A 90-member joint rescue team has been deployed at the site. Officials said the team reached the main section of the tunnel and created a six-square-foot opening. Rescuers went down through it using ropes and called out to those inside, but received no response. Heavy equipment and blasting were being used at the same time as the opening was widened to speed up the operation. Nepal News reported that the Nepali Army also airlifted dismantled excavators and bulldozers to Battar in Nuwakot to help clear the approach. Ratopati later reported that the tunnel mouth had been located about 40 metres upstream from the vertical opening and about eight metres below it, though rescuers had not yet reached the workers believed to be trapped inside.
With hundreds still missing or out of contact, survivor accounts from Mailung, Upper Trishuli-1 and other project sites show the scale of the floods that tore through Nepal’s hydropower corridor, while rescue teams continue efforts to reach those trapped in tunnels and cut-off areas.
With PTI Inputs
– Ends
SOURCE :- TIMES OF INDIA
