Two Workers Rescued Alive After Nine Days Trapped in Nepal Tunnel
Two hydroelectric workers survived nine days trapped in a flooded tunnel in Nepal's Trishuli Valley after a catastrophic glacial collapse killed over 1,300 people.
Kabir Maharjan lay in a state of delirium, drifting in and out of consciousness in a pool of muddy water and absolute darkness. For nine days, he was trapped inside a tunnel beneath the debris of Nepal's worst flooding disaster in decades. When he finally woke up in the hospital after a rescue described as a miracle, he did not even recognize his wife.
Maharjan was one of hundreds of hydroelectric power plant workers believed to have been buried alive when a glacier collapsed above Nepal's Trishuli Valley on August 26. The collapse, which occurred about 40 kilometers upstream, unleashed a wall of mud and water that killed more than 1,300 people and left thousands missing across Nepal and neighboring Tibet.
According to reports, Maharjan and mechanical foreman Sanjay Sah survived thanks to an air pocket that formed in the tunnel, as confirmed by Member of Parliament Shree Ram Neupane, a veteran tunnel engineer who participated in the rescue efforts.
The Race Against Time in Trishuli
On the day of the disaster, entire power stations vanished from control screens in the capital, Kathmandu, one after another. Despite evacuation orders issued to workers at the "Trishuli 3A" project, many could not escape the massive wave of water in time. While the main 180-meter access tunnel was completely flooded, leaving no hope for survivors, Maharjan and Sah found refuge in a shorter, sloped cable tunnel just 160 meters from the exit.
For nine days, the air pocket that saved their lives became their prison. Sah recounted reciting Hindu prayers to keep calm, while Maharjan sipped the muddy water he lay in to survive. Outside, rescue teams waged a race against time and harsh terrain, battling mud, rocks, and debris buried under 15 to 30 meters of earth.
The Breakthrough
The breakthrough came when a 13-centimeter locator drill confirmed the tunnel's path, though heavy rains continued to wash out excavated shafts, repeatedly pushing rescuers back. On the tenth day, at 4:00 AM, a sound was heard. As rescuers drilled a small opening, a single word emerged from within: "Honuhoncha" ("We are here").
The two men were pulled out unable to stand, covered in mud and completely exhausted. A day later, another survivor, a Chinese national, was found in a tunnel at a different hydroelectric station.
Maharjan's wife, sitting by his hospital bed as doctors treated a deep wound on his leg, said:
"He has been given a new life."
Amidst the absolute darkness, the miracle of Trishuli Valley has provided a glimmer of hope to a devastated nation.
