Kathmandu: An engineer from Odisha, posted at the Upper Trishuli hydropower project in Nepal, had a miraculous escape on Wednesday after being asked to rush to the tunnel site by his office.
Unfortunately, his wife and daughter were not so lucky. They continue to remain missing after their home was washed away by the flash flood.
Gunnam Jay Krishna (37) received a call from office, asking him to rush to the tunnel site from the workshop. He escaped the floodwaters by minutes as part of the tunnel is on elevated ground.
He had left for work at 7.30 am on Wednesday, planning to return home for breakfast at 9 am. His quarters were hardly 1.5km from the project site, a 15-minute walk, Jay Krishna said.
Soon after he reported at the workshop, he was ordered to inspect the tunnel.
“Two colleagues and I went deep inside the tunnel to see whether everything was right. Suddenly we heard a deafening blast. Water began seeping in. Scared, we rushed to the upper section of the tunnel, 40 metres above the river,” he told The Telegraph over the phone from Kathmandu.
The spot offered a clear view of the devastation. “I could not believe my eyes. The entire workshop and colony houses were gone. There was no sign of human life; everything was buried under the debris,” the engineer said.
Jay Krishna and his two colleagues spent the next 36 hours under the open sky, without food or water, until the company sent a helicopter to rescue them the following afternoon.
“I cried for hours thinking about my daughter and wife. Everything was gone,” he said.
The engineer is now staying at a hotel in Kathmandu and will visit the Indian embassy today.
“We have lost all our documents. Fresh documentation will begin on Monday. Once the process is complete, they will send us to India. Those who survived are traumatised,” Jay Krishna said.
He is struggling with the uncertainty surrounding his wife and child, desperately clinging to hope.
“A father enjoys a special bond with his daughter. She is the joy of my life. I hope I regain my joy,” he said.
“I still believe some miracle may take place and my daughter will be traced. Whenever I arrived home, she would jump into my arms and hug me tight. How can I forget her?”
Jay Krishna is a native of Bargarh in western Odisha. He had earlier worked at various hydropower projects in Jammu and Kashmir and elsewhere, arrived in Nepal in 2019. He married Sai Bindu, also from Bargarh, in 2023.
“My wife never complained about anything. We had a happy married life. I never imagined such a disaster would strike my life. Without her my existence has no meaning,” he said.
It would be “too tough” to return to Odisha without his wife and daughter, the engineer said.
“I shall always carry the memories with me, but it will be painful to live without them. I don’t know why God has inflicted such pain on me. How will I face my relatives when I reach home?”
Sai Bindu’s brother Venktesh said: “I don’t know how I will face my brother-in-law. Every moment, I pray that I get my sister and niece back. My sister has never had any complaints during her three years of married life. Why was God so cruel to them?”
