Eleven workers of the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation were trapped inside the Dhauliganga Power Project in Uttarakhand’s Pithoragarh on Sunday after a landslide triggered by heavy rain blocked its regular and emergency tunnels, PTI reported.

The path leading to the tunnels of the power project in the Ealagarh area near Dharchula was blocked by the landslide, initially trapping 19 persons. However, eight of them were rescued.

Pithoragarh District Magistrate Vinod Goswami told PTI that the administration started removing the debris immediately after the incident. “…the process of taking out 11 others is underway,” the news agency quoted Goswami as saying.

The situation is under control, he added.

Earlier in the day, Deputy District Magistrate Jitendra Verma said that bulldozers had been deployed to clear the debris. Verma added that power generation from the project had not been interrupted.

Heavy rains and a series of cloudbursts have triggered flash floods and landslides in several districts of the state in recent weeks, leaving many dead and several missing.

On Monday, the India Meteorological Department issued a red alert for heavy rainfall in the state’s Dehradun, Haridwar, Pauri Garhwal and Tehri Garhwal districts.

Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami told ANI on Sunday night that a few districts were on red alert and some others on orange alert, adding that the next 24 hours to 48 hours would be crucial and a close watch had to be kept.

Personnel from the district administrations, the National Disaster Response Force, the State Disaster Response Force and other departments were on alert, Dhami added.

“We are providing immediate assistance to those whose houses have been affected by the disaster and are relocating them to safe places,” he said. “Camps have also been set up. Our goal is to ensure that all basic needs are met in the relief camps... Efforts to open the blocked roads are underway.”