Rescue teams employ rat-hole mining to locate six workers trapped in Nepal hydropower tunnel
Rescuers at the Chilime 22 MW hydropower project in Nepal are using rat-hole mining, a method borrowed from a 2024 Uttarakhand rescue, to reach six workers trapped after the August 26 floods.
Following the devastating floods of August 26, six workers remain missing in the Chilime 22 MW hydropower tunnel in Nepal. Rescue efforts now incorporate rat-hole mining, a narrow-tunnel technique first used in the 2024 Uttarakhand Silkyara rescue, to navigate through collapsed sections. Twenty Indian Army and NDRF experts together with 37 Nepalese Army members have cleared roughly 90 metres of rubble and then drilled a rat-hole, extending the search to a total depth of 125 metres.
Water containing oil has been encountered, raising hopes that a void leads toward the underground power station where the workers were last seen near a water supply. Mud pumps are being deployed to remove the water, and teams are working in shifts to push forward. The Indian envoy in Nepal, Naveen Srivastava, indicated that clearing will proceed on September 15 to reach the powerhouse.
Why it matters
The rescue effort uses a risky mining technique to try saving six workers trapped in a flood-damaged tunnel, highlighting cross-border cooperation and innovative disaster response.
How this story developed
- Aug 28 Nepalese army pulls survivors from flooded hydropower tunnel in Rasuwa
- Sep 3 The storm made landfall on Fujian’s coast after earlier strikes on Zhejiang, leading to the suspension of dozens of ferry services and the closure of schools in Fuzhou and Quanzhou. Tourist sites such as theme parks in Fuzhou were also temporarily closed. The provincial emergency management authority warned of heavy rain, flash floods and landslides, while nearly a quarter-million residents in high-risk zones had been evacuated the previous week.
- Sep 3 Death toll rose above 1,270 and bodies recovered reached 1,252.
- Sep 3 After a deadly flash flood on the China-Nepal border, Chinese authorities have tightly controlled information, emphasizing rescue efforts over the identities of the dead and missing.
- Sep 5 A Canadian citizen missing after the floods was located safe.
- Sep 5 After more than a week of searching, a 64-year-old woman was rescued from a mud-filled house and a Chinese worker was saved from a deep tunnel, rekindling optimism amid Nepal's deadliest floods in a decade.
- Sep 5 Authorities suspended 24 passenger ferry routes and closed Fuzhou theme parks.
- Sep 6 Flash floods ripped a three‑storey building in Xianyou County and drones delivered supplies to a flooded school in Wenzhou.
- Sep 6 Officials are pursuing higher‑ground reconstruction of the school with Indian aid.
- Sep 7 Chinese authorities barred foreign journalists from entering the Tibet Autonomous Region.
- Sep 7 Chinese worker Lu Haitao was rescued from a 225‑metre hydropower tunnel and air‑lifted to a hospital.
- Sep 7 The United Nations launched a $50 million appeal to aid flood‑affected residents.
- Sep 9 Two hydropower workers were rescued after being trapped for nine days.
- Sep 14 UN assistant secretary‑general Kanni Wignaraja warned of expanding flood risk across the Himalayas.
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