Flooding along Nepal’s Bhotekoshi river has damaged 11 hydropower projects and a solar plant, with 942 people, including project workers, still unaccounted for, according to project operators and industry officials.

The Nepali Army, Armed Police Force (APF) and project technicians are carrying out search-and-rescue operations, including inside tunnels where workers are feared trapped. Chinese, South Korean and Indian rescue teams are also working at some of the projects.

The damaged facilities include the Upper Trishuli-1, Upper Trishuli-3A, Upper Trishuli-3B, Langtang Khola, Trishuli, Devighat, Mailung Khola, Chilime and Rasuwagadhi hydropower projects, as well as Trishuli Ganga, Rasuwa Bhotekoshi and Nuwakot Solar.

Two rescued from Upper Trishuli-3A

Rescuers entered the tunnel of the 60-megawatt Upper Trishuli-3A project and pulled out two people alive. They also recovered one body but found no one else, according to the Armed Police Force. Thirty-nine people from the project remain unaccounted for.

A seven-member APF team led by Head Constable Pawan Bahadur Tamang searched the tunnel, accompanied by Nepali Army personnel.

APF officer Ambar Mahat said the team crawled for 15 to 20 minutes through mud and debris to reach the tunnel’s interior.

“Every part of the plant is buried in mud and debris, and some areas are filled with rocks,” Mahat said. “We found mud, silt and debris throughout the tunnel.”

He said slabs above the tunnel had collapsed under the pressure of floodwater.

The two survivors were rescued near the building housing the powerhouse, Mahat said. “We did not hear any other voices,” he said.

One of the survivors, Sanjay Sah, said he had been inside the powerhouse and was unable to get out while helping others evacuate.

APF spokesperson Netra Bahadur Karki said the search team had reached the far end of the tunnel. An official said one body was found on the remaining floor of the structure, but no other survivors or bodies were located.

A senior official at Upper Trishuli said the search had been called off after Army and Armed Police teams found nothing else. Project staff subsequently made another search of areas where people could have been trapped but found no one, said Abhash Ojha, head of the Upper Trishuli hydropower station.

Rescue teams withdraw from Langtang Khola project

Rescue teams from the Nepali Army and APF have withdrawn from the 20-megawatt Langtang Khola hydropower project after searching all areas where people might have been trapped, Karki said.

The project’s powerhouse, camp and other surface facilities were swept away by the flood, said developer Bijay Mohan Bhattarai.

“The powerhouse, camp and other structures were on the surface. Everything was washed away. There is no structure left,” he said.

Two bodies were recovered from the tunnel on Thursday, he said. Workers had been operating inside the tunnel shortly before the flood.

Power to the site went out two or three minutes before the flood struck, Bhattarai said, raising the possibility that workers inside had managed to evacuate.

“There were 33 people there from Wednesday, including Army and Armed Police personnel and project technicians,” he said. “Our teams searched all the likely areas but found no one. They have now returned.”

Thirty-nine people from the project remain unaccounted for.

Rescue equipment unable to reach Chilime

At the 22-megawatt Chilime hydropower project, rescuers have been unable to bring in essential equipment, including excavators, water pumps and generators, because roads to the site have been cut off.

The equipment and additional rescue personnel must be transported by helicopter, the Chilime Hydropower Company said.

The company, a subsidiary of the state-owned Nepal Electricity Authority, said about 90 metres of the main access tunnel had been filled with mud and water and was being cleared manually for the past three days.

Eight people, including the plant manager, along with Nepali Army and Indian Army rescue personnel, were working to clear the tunnel, said Babu Raja Maharjan, managing director of Chilime Hydropower.

“We have no road to bring the equipment in. It would be much faster with machinery,” he said. The company has a three-tonne excavator dismantled and ready in Battar but has been unable to transport it to the site. “We have managed to take a pump there,” he said.

Six people from the project remain unaccounted for.

Access to Rasuwagadhi remains difficult

Rasuwagadhi Hydropower is also struggling to get rescue equipment to its site. The 111-megawatt project has 93 people unaccounted for, according to company secretary Narnath Neupane.

The company is trying to transport excavators, pumps and generators to the project, he said. Two technical staff are in Dhunche, and another two are in Battar, while teams are trying to move equipment towards the underground power house at Timure and Tatopani Danda.

Generators and pumps have been taken to Dhunche, but bad weather has prevented them from being transported to the power house, Neupane said.

“There is no road from Dhunche to Timure and Tatopani Danda, where the underground power house is located,” Neupane said. “The rescue teams and all essential supplies have to be transported by helicopter.”

Eight people working with Himalayan Summit Club have been flown to Timure to help search the project’s camp, offices and other facilities, he said.

Rescuers must clear mud, rocks and debris to reach the power house, while separate ground teams are searching around the camp and office for missing workers.

“We have been defeated by the terrain itself,” Neupane said. “The route to the power house through the tunnel is blocked by mud and rocks. It cannot be cleared by people alone.”

South Korean team joins search at Upper Trishuli-1

Search operations are continuing at the 216-megawatt Upper Trishuli-1 project, where South Korean rescuers, Sherpa guides, search teams and drone operators are working alongside specialist cameras and trained dogs.

The developer has transported 15 pieces of rescue machinery and equipment to Dhunche and, with Nepali Army helicopters, began moving them to the project site on Friday to accelerate the search.

Nine South Korean nationals working for the developer are among those unaccounted for.

The Nepal Water and Energy Development Company, the project developer, said 557 people remained unaccounted for. A total of 1,433 people were at the project site before the flood, while 876 had been rescued by Thursday.

The company estimates that 115 people may be trapped inside the main tunnel and dam area.

Search continues at Upper Trishuli-3B

A three-member rescue team from the project, working with the Nepali Army, is searching Upper Trishuli-3B.

Company secretary Lila Aryal said three small excavators were being used to clear an audit tunnel because a larger machine could not be brought to the site.

The company is also preparing to move some of the equipment from Upper Trishuli-3A to the 3B project, she said.

“The river is now flowing through our powerhouse,” Aryal said.

A total of 191 people from the project remain unaccounted for. They were believed to have been in the project camp, powerhouse and residential quarters when the flood struck.

Seven still missing from Mailung Khola

Seven people remain unaccounted for at the 5-megawatt Mailung Khola hydropower project, said investor Gore Sherpa.

The flood swept away the project’s switchyard and powerhouse, while its penstock pipe and headworks remained largely intact.

Sherpa said workers appeared to have shut down the plant and begun moving to higher ground before the flood struck. Project officials have reached the site but have found no one.

Devighat and Trishuli plants heavily damaged

One person remains unaccounted for at the 14.1-megawatt Devighat hydropower project.

The project had received information that Mina Shah Dhital had been rescued, but officials have been unable to determine where she was taken or what condition she was in, said station chief Harish Chandra Dhital.

The powerhouse has been buried, while about one kilometre of the water conveyance canal has been damaged and the switchyard has also been buried, he said.

The 24-megawatt Trishuli hydropower project has also suffered extensive destruction. Three employees are believed to have been swept away because they were working in surface facilities when the flood struck, said station chief Pradip Singh.

“Only the foundation is visible. Nothing else remains,” Singh said.

No employees of the Nuwakot Solar project were caught in the flood, according to the Independent Power Producers’ Association, Nepal.

The association said two people remain unaccounted for at the under-construction 15.6-megawatt Madhya Trishuli Ganga project and four at the 120-megawatt Rasuwa Bhotekoshi hydropower project.