Nepali and Chinese nationals rescued alive from flood-hit areas

A Nepali woman and a Chinese national were rescued alive 11 days after deadly floods in Nepal, as authorities intensified search operations for people still missing from flood-hit hydropower projects.

A Nepali woman and a Chinese national were rescued alive from two separate flood-hit areas on Saturday, 11 days after deadly floods struck regions along Nepal’s Bhotekoshi and Trishuli river corridors, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said.

Chandrika Shrestha, 64, was rescued on Saturday from the house of Anand Shrestha in flood-affected Betrawati Bazaar in Nuwakot district.

Shrestha, a resident of Bidur Municipality-10 in Nuwakot, was rescued by a team of the Armed Police Force, Nepal, led by Inspector Suman Bik. According to the PMO, she was found unconscious.

Following her rescue, Shrestha was airlifted by helicopter to the Nepali Army’s Maithili Barracks in Trishuli, where she received initial treatment. She will be taken to Kathmandu for further medical care if required, the PMO said.

Separately, a Chinese national was rescued from a tunnel at the flood-hit 216-MW Upper Trishuli 1 Hydropower Project in Rasuwa district, 11 days after the deadly floods struck the area.

The Nepali Army, in coordination with a disaster expert team from South Korea, rescued the Chinese national from Audit 4 of the project’s tunnel, the PMO said in a social media post.

The survivor was subsequently taken to the Maithili Barracks in Trishuli, Nuwakot, for further medical assessment and care.

The rescue was part of intensified ongoing efforts to locate and evacuate people believed to be trapped inside hydropower project tunnels following devastating floods that swept through the Bhotekoshi and Trishuli river systems last week.

Several hydropower projects and other infrastructure along the Bhotekoshi and Trishuli river corridors were badly damaged, while several workers employed at hydropower projects in the affected areas remain out of contact.

According to the Independent Power Producers’ Association, Nepal (IPPAN), a representative body of private-sector power developers in Nepal, the under-construction Upper Trishuli 1 Hydropower Project has reported the highest number of people out of contact among 11 flood-affected hydropower projects in the Rasuwa and Nuwakot districts.

As many as 936 people employed at 11 hydropower projects remain out of contact, including 551 from the Upper Trishuli 1 project, IPPAN said on Friday evening.

On Friday, the Nepali Army rescued two Nepali nationals alive after they had been trapped inside the tunnel of the 60-MW Upper Trishuli 3A Hydropower Project in Nuwakot district.

The Nepali Army has been conducting search and rescue operations in coordination with foreign technical teams, including experts from India, China and South Korea, to reach people stranded inside underground structures at several hydropower projects.

With IANS inputs...

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