"No Additional Survivors Seen in Tunnel"... Re-entry into Nepal's UT-1 Tunnel and Powerhouse Search

[Financial News] The Korea Disaster Relief Team (KDRT) found no additional survivors in a weir dam tunnel near the Upper Trishuli-1 Hydropower Project (UT-1) in Nepal, where it rescued one Chinese survivor.
The Korean relief team conducted an additional search of the area where the Chinese survivor rescued on the 6th (local time) said another person had been nearby, but found no survivors. However, the team moved one body recovered the previous day out of the tunnel and is recovering two more bodies found subsequently. The relief team will conduct additional searches in the remaining sections of the tunnel, which branches into three passages. The operation is expected to face difficulties, as sand reportedly extends 4 kilometers inward from the point where the Korean team rescued a Chinese survivor on the 5th.
The Chinese survivor was found in a settling basin built near the tunnel entrance. A settling basin filters sand when river water bypasses the dam and flows into the tunnel.
After passing through the settling basin, the river flows through a 9.1-kilometer tunnel toward the power plant. The UT-1 project site has tunnel sections in four areas, including the waterway tunnel leading to the underground powerhouse downstream, in addition to the tunnel near the weir dam that was flooded this time. Many workers are believed to remain in these tunnels.
At the time of the flooding, one of the nine Korean workers is believed to have been working near the upper weir dam, while the other eight were working near the downstream powerhouse.
The Korean relief team conducted a drone search in the area near the powerhouse, where many Korean nationals are believed to be missing. Corporate response teams from companies involved in constructing the hydropower plant, including Korea South-East Power and Doosan Enerbility, also formed their own search teams to search the mountainous area. The Korean relief team continues to persuade the Nepal Army to allow a walking search in the Ramche area, which it has not authorized. Efforts are also underway to track the locations of the missing Koreans' mobile phones, but no progress has been made because of technical problems.\u00a0
At the UT-1 hydropower plant, 1,400 people, including Nepali, Indian and Chinese workers, had been working at four sites, including the dam, intake facility and underground powerhouse. As of that day, 557 people remained missing at UT-1 alone.\u00a0

[email protected] Kim Kyung-soo Reporter