A 44-member South Korean rescue team arrived in Nepal on Wednesday morning to assist in the search for people who remain unaccounted for at the Upper Trishuli-1 Hydropower Project following the Bhotekoshi-Trishuli flood.
The 216-megawatt Upper Trishuli-1 project is the hydropower site with the highest number of missing people. According to details provided by the Independent Power Producers’ Association, Nepal (IPPAN), 576 people remain out of contact here, while an estimated 300 people are feared trapped inside the tunnel.
Nine South Koreans are among those missing. Of them, six are employees of Doosan Enerbility and three are employees of Korea South-East Power.
According to The Korea Times, the 44-member Korea Disaster Relief Team (KDRT) – comprising personnel from South Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), and fire authorities – arrived in Nepal on Wednesday morning.
The team reached Kathmandu aboard a South Korean Air Force KC-330 Cygnus multirole tanker transport aircraft.
"The team plans to conduct search-and-rescue operations in cooperation with Nepali authorities and our dispatched government emergency response team," The Korea Times reported, quoting a ministry official.
According to the official, the team is scheduled to remain in Nepal for around 10 days, although the deployment could be extended depending on conditions at the disaster site.
The KDRT brought five rescue dogs and various types of advanced equipment, including high-resolution drones, devices for detecting buried victims through sound and video and thermal imaging detectors, The Korea Times reported.
The emergency response team, along with corporate teams, has been mobilizing helicopters, drones, search dogs and other available means to search for signs of survivors despite the extensive search area, rugged terrain, and debris and mud hampering movement, it added.
Rescue workers have reached Dhunche in Rasuwa, one of the areas hardest hit by the flooding, to comb through the affected site, The Korea Times reported. Dhunche is located about two kilometers from the upper dam of the Upper Trishuli-1 Hydropower Project.
The response team will remain in Dhunche and continue conducting joint helicopter, drone and ground searches with the Nepal Army on Wednesday, another ministry official told The Korea Times.
"We are also consulting with the Nepali authorities on such options as tracking the missing persons' mobile phone locations. We are gathering information on the locations where the missing people are believed to be, while speaking with Nepali survivors and local officials," he added.
According to The Korea Times, Doosan Enerbility has also been conducting helicopter searches while using high-performance drones and plans to conduct a detailed analysis of video footage recorded during aerial searches.
Similarly, Korea South-East Power has been using drones and search-and-rescue dogs and is considering sending additional personnel to support operations at the site, company officials said.
South Korea had expressed interest from the outset in joining rescue efforts at Upper Trishuli-1, where its own citizens are among the missing. However, because Nepal had not granted permission, technical personnel from countries other than India and China had not previously been allowed to take part in the rescue operation.
