Indra Prasad Gotame: Rescue work is underway in Nuwakot, but Rasuwa is not getting enough help

More than 300 people are feared trapped inside six tunnels in Nepal’s Rasuwa district, while rescue teams lack the equipment and technical expertise needed to enter them, provincial assembly member Indra Prasad Gotame said.

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The situation here is quite serious. We have been told that more than 300 people are inside six tunnels in Rasuwa.

Gotame, who is in Dhunche, said the Army had rescued people who survived the floods and remained stranded outside. Relief operations were not the main difficulty, he said. The urgent challenge was reaching those believed to be inside tunnels connected to hydropower projects.

Families of people missing since the floods have urged the government to begin rescue operations immediately. They want authorities to establish whether their relatives are still alive. Gotame said the provincial assembly had asked the federal government to send skilled technical personnel and the necessary equipment to assess conditions inside the tunnels.

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The government does not have the technical personnel needed to enter the tunnels, nor does it have the necessary equipment.

He said rescue efforts similar to those underway at the Upper Trishuli 3A and 3B hydropower project tunnels should also take place at five other tunnel sites in Rasuwa. Local residents and relatives of the missing are making the same demand, he said, holding on to the possibility that some people may have survived.

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Local people and relatives are demanding that those inside the tunnels be brought out so that we can know whether they are alive.