200 Chinese workers stranded in hydropower project in Nepal

KATHMANDU - Nearly 200 Chinese workers are still stranded but safe in Lamabagar Area's Upper Tamakoshi hydropower project construction site in Dolakha District, Central Nepal, eight days after a powerful earthquake struck the nation.

The workers are from the Sinohydro Corporation Limited, a Chinese Company which is the contractor of civil construction works for the Upper Tamakoshi Hydropower Company Limited in charge of the project, Nepal officials said.

A worker from the Chinese corporation told Xinhua on Sunday that a total of 194 Chinese workers are still trapped there while 35 others had been evacuated and another five had been airlifted earlier by the Nepali army.

Meanwhile, Peng wei, economic councilor of the Chinese Embassy to Nepal, told Xinhua on Sunday that more than 100 Chinese workers are trapped in the project construction site and they are all safe there.

Secretary of the Nepal Government Gajendra Thakur who is involved in the rescue and relief operation in Dolakha District said efforts are underway to rescue and airlift the Chinese workers to Capital Kathmandu.

Ganesh Neupane, chief of the Environment Division of the Upper Tamakoshi Hydropower Company Limited, told Xinhua those Chinese technicians and engineers as well as 70 Nepali workers with the hydropower project were stranded in the powerhouse station after a massive landslide caused by the 7.9-magnitude earthquake blocked the 11-kilometer-long Lamabagar-Gongar stretch of the local road.

"Big rocks following the landslides have blocked the road. All the Chinese and Nepali employees would be airlifted to Kathmandu after the authorities clear the road," Neupane said.

He also said that all the Chinese and Nepali nationals are safe.