A four-day search and rescue operation at a collapsed tunnel in Sikkim concluded on 23 July with all 25 missing workers and officials confirmed dead, after a suspected methane explosion tore through the under-construction hydropower site on 20 July.
Among the dead were 19 employees of Patel Engineering Limited, alongside staff from NHPC Limited and ARX. Victims hailed from 10 Indian states, including 11 from West Bengal and four from Jharkhand. The blast, suspected to have been caused by a sudden release of methane gas from rock, struck the NHPC Teesta Stage VI project in Namchi district.
The Sikkim government has constituted a high-level committee to investigate the accident. The tunnel was designed to channel water from the Teesta River to a hydroelectric plant.