Two bodies were retrieved and 20 persons are missing, feared dead, after a relentless 72-hour downpour caused a Colonial-era bridge on the Mumbai-Goa Highway near Raigad district to collapse late on Tuesday night, taking two State Transport buses and private cars in its tow.
While rescue operations commenced only on Wednesday morning, the unceasing rains and the raging waters of the River Savitri further aggravated the discovery of any wreckage of the two State transport buses which are suspected to have plunged following the collapse of the 50-foot bridge connecting the city of Mahad with Poladpur.
While the number of cars that plunged into the river is yet to be ascertained, Raigad Guardian Minister Prakash Mehta said that eight-ten vehicles are feared to have fallen into the river. A Tavera SUV carrying a family of seven is suspected to be missing.
22 people, including the crew, were said to be travelling in the two buses, spurring political recriminations and bringing issues of civic negligence into sharp relief.
According to eyewitness reports, the incident occurred at 11:30 p.m. on Tuesday night.
“I was screaming for the other vehicles to stop when I discovered to my horror that the bridge no longer existed. I saw three cars, of the ‘Wagon R’ type plunge into the water and tried calling 100 to no avail,” said Basant Kumar Mishra, a driver who was among those who took the initiative to warn other vehicles, thus averting further tragedy.
“It is extremely unfortunate. We will be immediately conducting a safety audit of all the old, British era bridges, which are still in use in order to prevent further mishaps. We will leave no stone unturned to trace those missing,” said Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who surveyed the spot late afternoon along with Eknath Shinde, Minister for the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC).
Despite a frenetic 12-hour rescue attempt by the combined forces of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), the Navy, the Air Force and the Coast Guard, the combing operations lay prostrate as the incessant rain whipped the divers and the raging waves of the Savitri stymied rescue operations.
Four NDRF teams of around 115 personnel, a Chetak Helicopter and 12 divers from the Coast Guard, an Indian Air Force Mi 17 helicopter and a Seaking 42B helicopter were deployed on a war footing on various missions as personnel, along with local fishermen and villagers in boats were seen negotiating the vast expanse of brown river water and its angry, swirling current.
“Two bodies were retrieved by rescue personnel from the Dasgaon area. Following urgent discussions with the National Highways Authority (NHAI), we have shifted traffic to the new adjunct bridge. We are trying to confirm reports of other missing vehicles,” said Raigad District Collector Sheetal Ugale.
Divers and rescue boats continued to search the river around a five-km radius round the vanished bridge, in a bid to recover any wreckage of the missing vehicles till failing light forestalled search operations.
The Chiplun ST bus depot, from where the two missing buses had taken off, witnessed an anxious congregation of relatives as news of the doom-laden journey began filtering in.
The missing crew on the Jaigarh-Mumbai bus (MH 20 BN 1538) included driver S.S. Kamble and conductor V.V. Desai, and the Rajapur-Borivali (MH40 9739) bus included driver Gorakhnath Munde and conductor P.B. Shirke.
Poignant stories were narrated by relatives of the missing crew. A pall of gloom spread over Munde’s village in Parbhani district in Marathwada.
According to friends, 46-year-old Munde, who hailed from a farming family, was of a gentle nature and had struggled hard to secure his job as a State Transport bus driver.
Likewise, Kamble, the driver of the bus heading to Borivali, had a bitter tryst with destiny as his son, an engineering student, was travelling with him for an interview in Mumbai. The family hailed from Sangli.
“He [Kamble] had especially requested the night journey as he had to take his son for a job interview. He was very proud of him. It is extremely sad,” said an ST bus official in Chiplun.
No less was the consternation and a feeling of helplessness among the kin and friends of the missing families as in the case of Avinash Malap, who came to drop his mother and then head back to Mumbai.
“He regularly gave us updates till he reached Chiplun. But when we tried calling him around midnight, he did not reply,” said Rekha Malap, wife of Avinash Malap, who was travelling on the Jaigarh- Mumbai bus.
His son, Paarth, while sensing something ominous, only hopes father returns soon.
“My sister Snehal Baikar was accompanied by her husband Sunil, her sister Deepali, and her brother-in-law Bhushan Baikar. My heart missed a beat when the fateful news flashed today morning. We have been trying to get in touch with them ever since,” said a tearful Sameer Balekar, Snehal’s brother.
“Hope is the only weapon I now have to combat this terrifying helplessness,” he said.
Vilas Waghu, whose relative was on the bus heading to Borivali, said the news of the tragedy has numbed his senses. “I am too stunned to speak. I only hope these politicians take notice of such warnings and avert such disasters in the future,” he said.
A missing Tavera, which contained a family of seven persons including a minor, had last halted at Poladpur after which their kin and relatives had lost contact precisely after the time the incident is said to have occurred.
“We were shocked when we added two and two and came to the painful conclusion that our relatives mmay have gone missing in the tragedy,” said Ashish Bhalekar, whose relatives, the Kambli family were travelling in the Tavera.
“It has been raining with increasing force for the last 72 hours. The last time we witnessed nature’s fury was in 2005 when the waters of the Savitri had actually submerged the bridge,” said Kiran Shilimkar, a local resident in Mahad.
Mr. Shilimkar, who was aiding the search operations, squarely blamed the authorities for ignoring the warnings of the British that the load-bearing bridge had seen its day.
“The administration and the bickering politicians should have taken cognizance and halted traffic. This tragedy was eminently avoidable,” he says, echoing the views of many locals.
