Kathmandu Post — Hundreds feared trapped in hydropower tunnels after Bhotekoshi flood (2026)

Summary

This 29 August 2026 report documents the human dimension of the flood inside the Trishuli corridor's hydropower works: hundreds of workers believed trapped in tunnels and underground powerhouses three days after the event, with roads gone, tunnel entrances buried and — in some cases — authorities unable to establish where the works are.

Key Claims

• IPPAN reports 934 people linked to 11 hydropower projects unaccounted for; the Energy Ministry cites preliminary information of more than 1,000 employees out of contact.
• The Nepali Army is conducting search-and-rescue in 19 hydropower tunnels and rescued 254 people from the 216 MW Upper Trishuli-1 site and 18 from the 20 MW Langtang Khola project.
• Chilime (22.1 MW): eight people out of contact, six believed inside a mud-filled tunnel; tunnel and powerhouse damaged; the company is mobilising a rock-climbing rescue team.
• Rasuwagadhi: 49 employees out of contact of roughly 56–57 present at the dam site and powerhouse; three to six estimated inside the six- or seven-storey underground powerhouse.
• Upper Trishuli 3A (60 MW): Ministry of Energy describes a special operation to reach the underground powerhouse whose cable-tunnel entrance is buried; NEA's acting managing director cites 40–45 unaccounted.
• Upper Trishuli 3B (37 MW): developer Trishuli Hydropower Company says the project office and construction site are completely buried and "effectively turned into a riverbed"; 213 initially missing, 85 rescued.
• NEA's acting managing director says the flood knocked out 430 MW of generating capacity from 14–15 projects along the corridor, with no immediate national supply problem because domestic generation exceeds demand; restoring supply to the Dhunche area is under discussion.
• The Army's tunnel-rescue footage from Upper Trishuli-1 circulated widely; access, not capability, is described as the binding constraint.

Relevance

This is the primary source for the people-status column in the Bhotekoshi–Trishuli Flood 2026 impact register and for the underground-powerhouse survival question raised by the event — the same design logic discussed on Buildability and in the 2024 Thame case on GLOF Risk.

Limitations

• Numbers of missing and trapped are time-stamped to 29 August 2026 and were changing by the hour; the NDRRMA situation update the next day gives different aggregates.
• Capacity-offline and damage-tier statements are NEA preliminary estimates, not engineering assessments.
• The 20 MW Langtang Khola capacity in this report does not match the 10 MW operating record in the registry; both figures are preserved in the register rather than reconciled by assertion.