9 days after Mahad tragedy, bus wreckage located

A day before the massive search operation to locate bodies and fallen vehicles in the Savitri river was to be called off, naval divers located and recovered the entire mangled chassis of one of the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) buses.

Three pieces of the wreckage – chassis, roof and ripped off driver's cabin – of the Borivli-Rajapur bus were discovered around 200 metres from the spot where the Mahad bridge collapsed. Two teams of divers located the debris around 9.30am on Thursday, nine days after the accident. It is the only big recovery made by the search agencies, so far.

"The wreckage was of one of the buses. Other two are still stuck in the river bed. No corpses were found stuck to the wreckage. All bodies seem to have been washed away by the river's strong current," said defence spokesperson commander Rahul Sinha.

He added that the wreckage was located around 35-40 feet deep. "The other parts – roof and some other debris – was also reported by our divers to be near the same location," Sinha said.

Moments after discovering the wreckage, divers anchored the chassis with a balloon-hook so as to pin-point its exact location for extraction. Around 4.30pm, with the assistance of three JCBs and a hydraulic crane, the search agencies successfully extracted the chassis, which seemed to have been mauled by the swollen river.

"The roof had been peeled away and some seats and the driver's cabin were also missing. The engine and the axle-body are intact," said deputy superintendent of police (Mahad) Pranjali Sonawane, adding that her team has conducted the panchnama of the recovered wreckage.

She further said the discovery of the wreckage has motivated the search agencies anew. Till date, they have been carrying out an exhaustive 12-hour -per day operations, combing the entire 130-km stretch of the Savitri river.

As many as 26 bodies have been recovered of the 42 passengers who are feared to have died, after the British-era bridge collapsed on the night of August 2, near Mahad village in Raigad district.

Meanwhile, the NDRF, which had claimed to have found no wreckage during their 12-km Sonar combing operation, was also surprised over the discovery. As per NDRF deputy commander Pandit Ithape, the teams will now scan the riverbed again.

"We will scan the river once again, with a hope to locate the wreckage. Search will also continue till the mouth (Harihareshwar) for bodies or floating debris," Ithape said, while claiming that the final word on when to close the search operation will now come from the state government.