Nine days inside a pitch-black, debris-choked tunnel is a nightmare most people cannot imagine surviving. Yet, against all medical odds, two workers walked out alive from the Trishuli 3A hydropower project tunnel in Nepal after catastrophic flash floods.
When the disaster struck on August 26, triggered by a massive glacial and mountain collapse on the China-Nepal border, walls of mud and water slammed through local valleys. Hundreds of workers found themselves cut off. While recovery efforts quickly turned grim across the region, the recent extraction of mechanical foreman Sanjay Sah and supervisor Kabir Maharjan injected a sudden surge of hope into an otherwise devastating situation.
Inside the Trishuli 3A Tunnel Disaster
The scale of destruction across Nepal's hydropower infrastructure is staggering. Authorities estimate that roughly 500 workers remained trapped inside various underground tunnels across the country following the floods. The Trishuli 3A project alone had over a hundred people estimated trapped in its multi-kilometer network.
When the torrent hit, Sah was stationed in the control room. Rather than fleeing immediately, his instinct was to warn others.
"Since I was in the control room, my responsibility was to save everyone's lives," Sah recounted after his rescue. "After such an accident, I couldn't just run away by myself. I had to save everyone."
That delay cost him his clean escape route. As tons of debris and water blocked the exits, he and Maharjan became trapped deep underground in pockets of air, roughly 170 meters deep.
How They Stayed Alive in Total Darkness
Surviving over a week without regular food or clean water requires immense psychological endurance. In the absolute darkness of the blocked tunnel, Sah focused on mental discipline. He spent his days chanting Hindu prayers and the maha mantra to keep panic at bay.
The two men were not entirely isolated from each other at first. They managed to communicate by shouting through nearby sections of the underground infrastructure, clinging to the faint sound of another human voice.
Engineers and military rescue teams faced brutal conditions on the outside. Working around the clock, they pumped air into the compromised tunnels and slowly cleared dense mud and boulders that blocked access points. Rescuers had to crawl through tight, dangerous spaces for tens of meters just to reach the inner chambers.
When rescue teams finally broke through on the ninth day, the moment was surreal. Images released by the Nepal Army showed Sah and Maharjan caked in thick mud, covered in grime, yet conscious. Maharjan was carried out on a rescuer's shoulder, while Sah was brought out on a stretcher, his hands pressed together in a traditional gesture of gratitude.
The Long Road to Recovery and Ongoing Search Operations
Both men were immediately airlifted to a hospital in Kathmandu. Initial medical evaluations showed Sah in stable condition, while Maharjan required intensive care due to extreme exhaustion, leg injuries, and severe jaundice.
Family members who had spent over a week fearing the worst described the reunion as an absolute miracle. Hirashova Maharjan, Kabir's wife, noted that her husband was initially in deep shock and barely able to speak. As consciousness fully returned, his first fragmented questions reflected the sheer disorientation of someone pulled back from the brink: "Where am I?"
Despite this incredible success, the broader crisis is far from over. Disaster management agencies report that the floods caused hundreds of billions of rupees in structural damage, and search teams are still navigating unstable tunnels where other voices have occasionally been heard.
Government officials have stressed that operations will continue as long as there is any indication of life trapped beneath the debris. For now, the survival of Sah and Maharjan serves as a rare, powerful reminder of human resilience against the most catastrophic forces of nature.
How rescuers found Nepal tunnel workers alive after nine days
This video report provides visual documentation and frontline footage of the intense multi-day rescue operation inside Nepal's flooded hydropower infrastructure.
