The Kathmandu. As many as 38 technicians and workers are believed to be trapped inside the tunnel tunnel of the 60-megawatt Upper Trishuli 3A hydropower project due to the severe floods in the Bhotekosi and Trishuli rivers on Wednesday.

Continuous efforts are being made throughout the night to rescue the trapped. The mouth of the tunnel was opened by blasting at 3 am on Monday while cleaning the 'only portal' of the tunnel. After the opening of the tunnel, a large amount of water was found to be trapped inside, so the 9 dewatering work to drain out the drainage water using 'water pumpsets' has been accelerated.

To further speed up the rescue operation and make the dewatering process effective, additional high-capacity DG sets, 9 diesel generators and pump sets have already been delivered to the construction site. At the same time, work is also being done to prepare a safe way to enter the tunnel by removing large stones and mud piles accumulated at the mouth of the tunnel.