Two more bodies and bits of wreckage belonging to one of the two State transport buses that plunged off a broken bridge connecting Mumbai to Goa highway were recovered on Saturday, even as the search operations by various agencies were hampered by the continuing heavy downpour in and around the accident site.
With the recovery of two more bodies, the total number bodies fished out from under the Savithri river bed and nearby areas went up to 24. “We have so far recovered 24 bodies. Of the bodies, 23 have been identified,” Raigad district's Collector Sheetal Teli-Ugale said.
The 23rd body, recovered from by local fishermen on the bank of Saraswati river at Ambet village, has not been identified yet. However, one more body recovered from Mahapral creek later in the day was identified as that of one Dinesh Kambli. “Kambli was travelling in a Tavera jeep that plunged into Savithri river soon after the collapse of the Mahad bridge,” a senior Raigad district official said.
At least seven persons were travelling in the ill-fated Tavera jeep. On Friday, the rescuers had recovered the bodies of two occupants of the Travera jeep from different places.
As many as 42 persons had gone missing on Tuesday night after the two state transport buses and half a dozen smaller private vehicles were swept away in the swollen waters of Savithri river in the immediate aftermath of the collapse of an old bridge that connects Mahad town with Poladpur. The dilapidated bridge, constructed in 1928, caved in at 11.30 pm on Tuesday, following heavy rains and flooding in the Savithri river.
During the search operations carried out on Saturday, the Navy divers recovered some wreckage from the bed of the Savithri river. “The wreckage we have recovered looks like a bumper of one of the two buses,” a Navy official said.
Meanwhile, the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel began to use four hi-tech underwater cameras in their operations near the Mahad bridge collapse site in an effort to locate the missing bodies and wreckage of buses and vehicles that were swept away in swollen waters on Tuesday night.
“These cameras are able to record footage up to the depth of 200 feet. These cameras use solar wave technology to capture the objects lying underwater. The sound waves first hit some object underwater and its rebound is recorded to
ascertain what it is by the
lCD screen monitor kept above the water surface for observation,” a senior NDRF official said.