KATHMANDU — Emergency crews are drilling through collapsed mountainside debris today, fighting to reach an estimated 900 workers trapped inside a massive tunnel complex following catastrophic flash floods in Nepal.
The disaster struck early Tuesday after relentless monsoon rains triggered a series of massive landslides, burying the main access points to the project site. Local authorities confirmed that the sheer volume of mud and boulders has effectively sealed the workers inside the network of tunnels.
“We are dealing with a wall of earth that is shifting by the hour,” said district police chief Arjun Thapa. “Our primary focus is clearing a path to the ventilation shafts, but the rain hasn’t stopped, and the ground remains unstable.”
The trapped workers, mostly laborers and engineers, were on site when the hillsides gave way. Communication lines were severed instantly, leaving families gathered near the site entrance with little information beyond the grim reality of the rising floodwaters.
Military units have been deployed to assist, using heavy machinery to carve through the debris. Progress is agonizingly slow. Each time a section is cleared, secondary slides threaten to undo the work and put rescue teams at risk.
The project, a critical piece of Nepal’s infrastructure aimed at boosting hydropower capacity, has faced criticism in the past regarding environmental safety standards. Geologists had previously warned that the region’s fragile topography was ill-suited for large-scale excavation during the peak monsoon season.
While the government has promised a full investigation into the safety protocols at the site, the immediate priority remains the survival of those underground. Oxygen levels within the tunnels are a growing concern, and as the hours tick by, the window for a successful extraction is closing.
“We aren’t looking at paperwork right now,” said one site foreman who escaped the initial collapse. “We are looking at the mountain, praying for a break in the rain, and hoping the structural supports hold.”
With the weather forecast predicting another 48 hours of heavy downpours, the rescue effort has shifted from a race to a gamble against the landscape itself.
