Nine South Koreans working at a hydropower plant construction site in Nepal remain unaccounted for after massive flooding left more than 400 people missing in the country.
Nine Korean employees of Doosan Enerbility (034020) and Korea South-East Power lost contact at the construction site of the Upper Trishuli-1 (UT-1) hydropower plant, where Doosan Enerbility serves as the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and foreign media reports on the 27th. Six of them belong to Doosan Enerbility — five South Korean nationals and one dual citizen married to a South Korean — while the remaining three are employees of Korea South-East Power.
Doosan Enerbility activated an emergency response headquarters immediately after the incident to assess the situation on the ground, and decided to dispatch a response team of seven to eight people led by Chief Executive Officer Chung Yeon-in to Nepal in the afternoon. The Nepalese government has deployed a rescue force made up of army and police personnel to conduct search operations, and the company plans to work out specific rescue measures in cooperation with authorities after arriving on site. Korea South-East Power also plans to send staff to the location.
"After the incident occurred, we promptly contacted the families of the employees who lost contact and explained the situation," an official at Doosan Enerbility said. "We will work closely with the relevant authorities and project stakeholders and make every effort to support the search and rescue of the missing."
The UT-1 hydropower plant is the first private power generation project pursued by a South Korean company in Nepal. It is being built along the Trishuli River, about 70 kilometers north of the Nepalese capital Kathmandu. Total project cost is $647 million, or about 895.7 billion won, with a construction period of five years. Korea South-East Power and the Korea Overseas Infrastructure & Urban Development Corporation (KIND) are among the main shareholders. Korea South-East Power plans to operate the plant directly for 30 years after completion, and once commercial operation begins, the plant will supply about 20% of Nepal's total electricity.
