25 passengers were charred to death after their Pune-bound bus met with an accident and caught fire on the Samruddhi Mahamarg.
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis ruled out road construction at the flagship Samruddhi Mahamarg as the cause of the fatal bus accident that killed 25.
"Road construction not the cause of bus accident on Samruddhi highway," Fadnavis was quoted as saying by ANI.
"Only vehicle error and human error have been noticed in the accidents that occurred on the expressway so far," Fadnavis was quoted by PTI.
25 passengers were charred to death after their Pune-bound bus met with an accident and caught fire. As per preliminary reports, the bus suffered a burst tyre and hit a pole before colliding with the divider. Its diesel tank then caught fire in Maharashtra's Buldhana district at around 1.30 am on Saturday, police said. The private bus was on its way to Pune from Nagpur.
"After hitting the divider, the bus fell on its right side with the entry/exit door of the bus facing the sky. Within minutes, the vehicle caught fire. Some of the passengers were able to come out of the broken windows from the rear side," a senior police official from Buldhana said.
Eight, including the bus driver and cleaner, survived the accident and managed to escape the vehicle on fire. The driver has been taken into custody and is being questioned.
Some of the bodies were charred beyond recognition and may need DNA testing to confirm the identity of the deceased individuals. A probe was ordered by Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde. He also announced an ex-gratia of Rs five lakh for the families of each deceased.
Dy CM Fadnavis also told reporters that a smart system was being installed on the Samruddhi Expressway in order to prevent accidents. “The system will check the speed of vehicles and alert them. But it will take some time. Till then, we will have to create awareness among drivers at the toll booths on what precautions need to be taken to prevent accidents at night,” he explained.
(Inputs from PTI, ANI)
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 "‘Road construction not cause…’: Maharashtra Dy CM Devendra Fadnavis on Samruddhi Expressway accident that killed 25")
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