The Nepali Army recovered 11 more bodies from the tunnel of the Upper Trishuli-1 Hydropower Project in Rasuwa today, continuing a recovery operation that has now pulled dozens of bodies from the same site over the past several days pointing to loss of high scale at this single hydropower project that continues to grow with each passing day.
Upper Trishuli-1, a 216-megawatt project, has consistently been described by officials as the most serious site among the flood-affected hydropower projects a Nepal Army list from early September put the number of workers unaccounted for at this project alone at roughly 557, by far the highest single-site figure among the six affected hydropower tunnels along the Trishuli river corridor.
Previous recoveries at the site were made from the tunnel's Audit-3 section, roughly 100 metres in, near Daldung Khola. Bodies recovered in earlier rounds were reported to be trapped in steel reinforcement mesh installed for concrete work, requiring gas cutters and rotary rescue equipment to free them.
Identification of bodies recovered from this tunnel has remained difficult throughout the operation, since the construction company reportedly did not maintain accurate worker records.
With recoveries continuing steadily rather than tapering off, this tunnel alone may end up accounting for a significant share of the Bhote Koshi disaster's final death toll underscoring why Upper Trishuli-1 has been treated as the most serious single site since early in the response.
