Two workers rescued alive from Nepal hydropower tunnel nine days after catastrophic floods

Nine days underground in absolute darkness, Sanjay Shah emerged from the Trishuli 3A hydropower tunnel covered in mud but alive, his first question to the soldiers pulling him to safety a simple one: What day is it? He and Kabir Maharjan, a project supervisor, were extracted from 170 metres below the surface on September 4th, rescued from a catastrophic disaster that began when a melting glacier collapsed on the Nepal-Tibet border, sending a wall of water, boulders, and debris down the Bhotekoshi and Trishuli river valleys. The surge destroyed most of the hydropower projects in its path, trapping workers in tunnels and burying entire facilities under mud.

Shah had been in the control room when the flood struck, surrounded by roughly 40 to 45 other workers. Realizing immediately that something catastrophic had happened, he made a choice that cost him his own escape: he ran through the tunnel shouting at people to run, to save themselves. By the time he tried to leave, it was too late. The tunnel had filled with debris and water. He was trapped. To survive the nine days that followed, he chanted mantras in the darkness, keeping his mind steady. He heard voices—three or four others, he thought—calling out from nearby sections of the tunnel. Some may have been in the powerhouse itself. He could not reach them.

When rescuers finally pulled him out, Shah was conscious and stable. Maharjan, extracted shortly after, was in critical condition. His wife, Hirashova Maharjan, waited at the hospital in Kathmandu as her husband regained awareness. At first he did not recognize her, asking only where he was and what had happened. His leg was injured. His skin was deeply jaundiced from nine days without proper light or sustenance. But slowly, over hours, he began to return to himself. When she asked if he recognized her, he nodded. When she offered him water, he drank. The small gestures of recovery moved her profoundly. She had nearly given up hope.

The two rescues represent a narrow slice of a much larger catastrophe. The glacier collapse on the Nepal-China border triggered floods that killed at least 1,287 people across the country, with more than 5,000 still missing. The hydropower sector alone has been devastated: approximately 900 workers are unaccounted for across 12 projects high in the Himalayas, with authorities estimating that around 500 remain trapped in tunnels. The assumption driving the rescue effort is that some of these workers may have survived in air pockets, as Shah and Maharjan did. So far, more than 270 people have been rescued from various hydropower facilities.

The rescue operation itself was a grinding, methodical effort. At the Upper Trishuli 3A site, it took rescue teams nearly six days simply to locate the tunnel entrances, which had been buried deep in mud and blocked by massive boulders and floodwaters. Once inside, a seven-person search and rescue team from the armed police force, accompanied by Nepal army specialists, crawled through sections of the tunnel ten to fifteen metres at a time, clearing debris and listening for signs of life. They found one body during the operation, still unidentified. By Friday afternoon, after searching the entire powerhouse area and finding no further voices, authorities halted the search at that location.

At the Rasuwagadhi hydropower plant, rescue efforts continue with a different kind of hope: authorities say they are confident that 46 workers trapped in an underground chamber there are still alive. The scale of the missing—550 workers from the Trishuli River projects alone, according to the Independent Power Producers' Association of Nepal—means that rescue teams are racing against time and the unknown. The tunnels are dark. The air is limited. But Shah's survival, and Maharjan's slow return to consciousness in a hospital bed, prove that survival is possible. The question now is how many others are waiting in the darkness, and whether the rescue teams can reach them before time runs out.