Doosan Chairman Park Jeong-won: Confirming Employee Safety and Safe Return Is Top Priority

Regarding the disappearance of six employees following floods in Nepal, Doosan Group Chairman Park Jeong-won said today, "Confirming the safety of our employees and ensuring their safe return are our top priorities. We are working closely with local authorities and relevant organizations, and are checking the local situation through all available channels."

Chairman Park made the remarks in a message posted on the company's internal bulletin board, stating, "We are concentrating company-wide capabilities so that swift and systematic measures can be taken for search, rescue, and handling operations."

"The company views this situation with utmost gravity and, above all, deeply acknowledges the anxiety, pain, and concerns of the families and colleagues who are anxiously waiting for news every moment," Chairman Park said.

He added, "I sincerely hope that our colleagues can safely return to the arms of their families and coworkers. I also ask all executives and employees to pray as one for our colleagues."

Doosan Enerbility, an affiliate of Doosan Group, reported that six South Korean employees have lost contact and 10 are isolated at the Upper Trishuli (UT)-1 hydroelectric power plant construction site where engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) work was being carried out, following the massive floods that struck Nepal the previous day.

Doosan Group decided to provide an emergency fund of 5 million dollars to the Rasuwa region in Nepal to support search, rescue, and recovery operations in the flood-affected areas.

To assess and handle the situation, Doosan Enerbility established a 40-member emergency response headquarters at its Bundang headquarters in Gyeonggi Province yesterday, led by Executive Vice President Lee Dong-soo, head of the EHS division. The company also urgently dispatched an on-site response team led by Vice Chairman and CEO Jung Yeon-in to Nepal today.

Speaking to reporters before his departure today, Vice Chairman Jung said, "We are currently cooperating closely with relevant authorities. We will make our utmost efforts to rescue the employees with whom we have lost contact."

Vice Chairman Jung is scheduled to lead the on-site response as soon as he arrives in Nepal.

The on-site response team consists of 7 to 8 members, and the company reportedly plans to deploy additional personnel depending on local needs.

Korea South-East Power Co. (KOEN), which also lost contact with three of its employees, urgently dispatched an emergency response team led by Yoon Jang-hyun, head of the New Growth Business Division, to the site today.

Prior to his departure, Executive Vice Chairman Yoon stated, "We will focus on on-site searches and grasping the local situation so that our employees can return safely. We will do our absolute best utilizing all capabilities."

The South Korean workers who went missing in the floods were deployed to the UT-1 hydroelectric power plant construction site.

Located on the Trishuli River, 70 kilometers northwest of Nepal's capital Kathmandu, it is a large-scale run-of-the-river hydroelectric power plant with a capacity of 216 megawatts (MW), carrying a total project cost of 647 million dollars.

Once operational, the power plant is expected to increase Nepal's total power generation capacity by about 10 percent.

KOEN is in charge of investment and local project execution, while Doosan Enerbility is responsible for power plant construction and the manufacturing and supply of major equipment such as turbines and generators.

As Nepal's largest foreign direct investment (FDI) project, KOEN and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) pursued joint development from the early stages of the project to minimize political and financial risks associated with local conditions in Nepal.

Main construction on the power plant began in January 2022, and it was scheduled to start commercial operation after completion by the end of this year. However, with the construction site sustaining damage from the flooding, the completion schedule is expected to be significantly delayed.

Yoon stated, "The construction progress rate was at 84 percent, and it appears that over 90 percent of the upper weir dam has been destroyed, while the base camp where construction workers stayed also seems 90 percent destroyed. We understand that the underground power plant has not been buried."

(Photo provided by Doosan Group, Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.