Kabir Maharajan, a 45-year-old supervisor at the Upper Trishuli 3A hydropower project, was rescued alive on Friday morning after spending 10 days trapped inside a flood-hit tunnel in Nepal — ending an agonising wait for his family and offering renewed hope to hundreds of others still unaccounted for. Sanjaya Sah, 30, a foreman at the same project, was also brought out alive in the same operation.

The Rescue and What Followed

At approximately 8:30 am, the Nepal Electricity Authority telephoned the Maharajan family to confirm the rescue and direct them to the Nepal Army Hospital in Chhauni, Kathmandu, where Kabir was being taken for treatment. The family caught only a brief glimpse of him as he was wheeled inside.

'We saw him briefly while he was being taken into the hospital. His condition appears to be fine. He is currently receiving treatment in the treatment room, and we are waiting outside,' his younger brother, Amir Maharajan, said.

Ten Days of Fear and Uncertainty

The family's ordeal began when deadly floods swept through the Trishuli and Bhotekoshi river corridors on 26 August. Amir recalled that Kabir had spoken to the family just one day before the disaster, with a final call to his daughter-in-law on the morning of the floods.

What followed were 10 days of near-sleepless vigil. 'The following 10 days were extremely painful and uncertain for us. We lost both sleep and appetite,' Amir said. 'We kept following the media, Facebook and various sources for information and updates, wondering whether we would receive news about my brother today or tomorrow.'

The family — parents, sister-in-law, nieces, sister and other relatives — stayed together throughout, pooling every fragment of information and trying to keep each other's hopes alive. On Friday morning, word came first that another survivor had been pulled from the tunnel, and moments later that Kabir too had been brought out alive.

'After the long and difficult 10-day wait, the entire family is filled with happiness to have my brother back safe and sound,' Amir said.

A Second Family's Relief

Laxmi Kumari Sah, wife of rescued foreman Sanjaya Sah, said she was at home when she heard the news at around 8:30 am. 'I am very happy about the rescue of my husband, and it has brought happiness to all my family members,' she said. 'It brought a lot of joy to the family.'

According to a video circulated on social media, Sah indicated that three to four people remained in his unit at the time of rescue, while more than 40 people had left the tunnel following the initial incident.

The Wider Disaster: Scale and Missing Persons

The twin rescues stand against a backdrop of staggering loss. The 26 August floods have killed at least 1,295 people, while 4,898 people remained out of contact as of Friday 2 pm, according to the latest update from Nepal Police. The floods caused extensive damage to hydropower infrastructure along both river corridors, and several workers at affected projects are still believed to be missing.

The Independent Power Producers' Association, a grouping of private-sector power developers, said on Thursday evening that as many as 945 people working across 11 hydropower projects affected by the floods remained out of contact — a figure that underscores how far the search and rescue effort still has to go.

Gratitude to Rescue Teams

The Maharajan family expressed deep gratitude to all those involved in the operation. 'On behalf of our family, we would like to express our heartfelt thanks to the Nepal Army, expert teams from the Armed Police Force, rescuers and everyone else who was directly or indirectly involved in the search and rescue operation, as well as everyone at home and abroad who supported us,' Amir said.

The successful recovery of the two men has injected fresh hope into the broader rescue effort, even as hundreds of families across Nepal continue to wait for news of their own missing loved ones.