Officials involved told the BBC that the search work in the tunnel of the Trishuli 3A hydropower project, which was affected by the floods in the Bhotekoshi and Trishuli rivers, will probably be completed on Saturday.

Nine days after the flood, two people were rescued alive on Friday and one body was found. Suresh Raut, co-manager of Nepal Electricity Authority, said that no one else was left inside the tunnel.

Officials said that search operations are still ongoing at the Upper Trishuli 3B and Chilime hydropower projects.

Sanjay Sah of Saptari and Kabir Maharjan of Kirtipur, who were rescued on Friday morning, have been admitted to the military hospital in Kathmandu's cantonment.

According to the officials, among the rescued, Sah's condition is normal while Maharjan has some injuries. Maharjan has been kept in the intensive care unit.

A review discussion was held on Saturday morning in the search and rescue team consisting of Nepal Police, Nepal Army, experts and others.

"After yesterday's rescue, we again sent a team of 12-13 people into the tunnel to see if there are still any missing people. After searching for two and a half hours, the team came out on Friday evening," said Raut, joint manager of the authority.

"We have searched all the places where we need to search. But we are going to go inside the tunnel one last time to search now so that we don't stop the search suddenly and to satisfy the electricity workers and other victims' family members," he added.

According to officials, a team of 12-13 people will spend about three hours to ensure that there are no survivors or dead bodies.

"It will take about three hours. We will finish it by 1 pm," Raut added further.

Officials said that although a search operation was started at the beginning, it was estimated that 40-42 people could be inside the Trishuli 3A tunnel, but later it was understood that there could only be five people.

Two of them were found alive and one dead. The search continued from Friday afternoon to evening to see if the remaining two could be found.

"When it was realized that the flood would be big, everyone inside the tunnel came out. It seems that 4-5 people who were behind could not come out," Raut said.

Sanjay Sah, who was rescued alive, also said that he could not get out when his other friends were asked to come out.

According to Raut, since there is no possibility of people inside the tunnel of Trishuli 3A, many of the tools used in the search have been sent to the Trishuli 3B project already on Friday. There is still an ongoing search.

"If necessary, we are working to send manpower from here," he said.

Meanwhile, Australia's famous international tunnel expert Arnold Dicks, who has previously been helping in the search from a distance, has announced through social media that he is now going to the search site.

Photo source, Reuters

According to the details released by the Nepali Army on social media, a joint rescue team including 89 army personnel, three non-military personnel and the managing director of the project identified the office and residence of the project and dug a path using an excavator to reach the area using 'Bobcat' and removing soil.

More search and rescue is also going on in Langtang Hydro, while in Chilime Hydro, a joint team with foreigners is working to remove mud with the help of generators and 'mud pumps', according to the army.

Sriraj Bajracharya, information officer of Chilime Hydropower Company Limited, also told the BBC that search and rescue operations are ongoing there.

"A helicopter is going there today with drones," he said.

According to the Nepali Army, the work of dumping water in the tunnel at Haku of Upper Trishuli 1 is continuing.

BBC News Nepali is also on YouTube. Click here to subscribe to our channel and watch published videos. You can also find our content on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. And you can listen to the program of BBC Nepali Service at nine o'clock in the evening on the radio from Monday to Friday.