Officials believe at least 900 people are trapped in tunnels related to six hydropower projects along the Trishuli river.
For nine days, Shah sat in the tunnel’s darkness, where he chanted mantras (verses from a prayer) to hold onto hope. He managed to stay in contact with three or four other workers somewhere in the tunnel and said others could be trapped deeper into the mountain.
Shah and fellow survivor Kabir Maharjan, a mechanical supervisor, are the first workers to be rescued from the hydropower project. A small group had managed to escape from another tunnel hours after the disaster struck.
Footage released by the Nepali Army showed Shah being carried out on a worker’s back, his face caked in mud.
At least 1,287 people were killed in Nepal as houses, streets and schools in towns and villages near the border with China’s Tibet were swept away. So far, 5,083 people are reported missing and thousands more displaced. China has put the death toll in Tibet at 21, with 541 others listed as missing.
Shah and Maharjan have been taken to an army hospital in Kathmandu, where they remain in intensive care.