BackMumbai-Goa highway bridge collapses, 22 missing
Two buses were washed away in Savitri river, near Mumbai, around 2am on Wednesday after the bridge on Mumbai-Goa highway collapsed
PremiumPhoto: PTI
Mumbai: At least 22 people were reported missing after two buses of Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) were washed away in Savitri river near Mahad, around 170km from Mumbai, on the Mumbai-Goa highway around 2am on Wednesday.
The accident happened after a British-era bridge on the river collapsed due to the force of the flooding river.
Two teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), personnel from the Indian Air Force, Coast Guard and state police officials launched search operations early on Wednesday but could not find any trace of the two buses till 11am. Each bus had 11 passengers each, including the driver. Both the buses were Mumbai-bound. Maharashtra transport minister Diwakar Raote confirmed on Wednesday morning that the buses were washed away in the flooding river after the bridge collapsed.
While Marathi news channels reported that 7-8 smaller vehicles also got washed away, no official confirmation has come in this regard yet.
Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis tweeted on Wednesday night, “There is no confirmed assessment about casualties since the area is very dark. Administration will ensure speedy rescue & relief operations." Fadnavis also tweeted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke with him about the accident. In one of his tweets, Fadnavis said the primary reason for the accident seemed to be the high pressure caused due to flooding of Savitri river due to heavy rains in the catchment area of Mahabaleshwar.
Following the accident, traffic between Mumbai and Goa came to a halt for some time, but resumed on a parallel bridge later. Maharashtra’s public works department minister Chandrakant Patil said in May this year that a team from the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) had inspected the old bridge and certified it “safe" for traffic. Patil has ordered a probe into the inspection carried out by the NHAI team.
Senior National Congress Party leader Ajit Pawar confronted the government, in the Maharashtra legislature which is currently in session, for “allowing traffic on the old bridge when there was a newly constructed parallel bridge" and demanded that Maharashtra PWD minister be tried for “culpable homicide".
Eknath Shinde, minister for Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation, announced in the assembly that a structural audit of all 36 British-era bridges on the Mumbai-Goa highway will be carried out in 15 days.
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