With the various agencies having not been able to recover more number of bodies from the Savithri River during the last four days, the Maharashtra Government said on Wednesday that it would declare the missing victims of the August 2 Mahad bridge collapse as dead and give compensation to their families, in the event of the authorities failing to trace the bodies of the missing ones within two months.
Making an announcement to this effect, Maharashtra PWD Minister Chandrakant Patil said, "Fifteen people are still missing. We have not recovered any bodies during the last four days. As a result, there is considerable anxiety among their family members. The presence of a large number of crocodiles is coming in the way of search operations".
As many as 42 people had gone missing on August 2 after the two State transport buses and half a dozen smaller private vehicles were swept away in the Savithri River in the immediate aftermath of the collapse of an old bridge that connects Mahad town with Poladpur in Raigad district on the Mumbai-Goa Highway. The dilapidated bridge, constructed in 1928, had caved in at 11.30 pm following heavy rains and flooding in the Savithri River.
As on August 7, the search teams had recovered 27 bodies. However, the teams have since then drawn a blank in their search operations.
Initially, the State Government had announced a compensation of `5 lakh to the next of kin of each of passengers travelling by the two State transport buses. However, the families of each of the ST bus passengers will now get `10 lakh as compensation, because they will get money from two official sources.
There is, however, no clarity on whether other bridge collapse victims — like the ones travelling by private vehicles — would get compensation at all and if yes, what will be the compensation amount.