Arnold Dix said the disaster was unlike a conventional tunnel rescue
He said 27 hydropower plants were damaged, with 12 suffering severe damage. He is overseeing the Trishuli 3A operation, where around 50 lives could be at stake.
Dix, advising Nepal govt on rescue efforts at Trishuli 3A hydropower project, told TOI Tuesday that the disaster was unlike a conventional tunnel rescue. “We’ve had some good progress today,” Dix said. “We’re now at that critical stage where we’ve found the tunnel, we’re getting water out, and we can start to head up towards the power station.”
At the project, teams are working to drain water from an access tunnel and clear the route towards the powerhouse, where survivors may be trapped.
Dix said he was fortunate to be working with “a team of fantastic Indian Army engineers” who had also worked with him during Silkyara rescue. Draining the tunnel could also lower water levels inside the powerhouse, he said. Asked whether teams received signs of survivors, Dix said absence of signals could not be treated as proof that nobody was alive.
He remained hopeful that if workers had survived, they were likely to be in upper part of the powerhouse.