As many as 13 passengers were killed on Monday, when a Maharashtra-bound state transport bus fell into the Narmada River on a bridge between Khalghat and Tikri in Dhar district of Madhya Pradesh.
The Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) bus was negotiating a bridge built over the Narmada river, when one of its tyres suddenly got burst and the vehicle rammed into the railing of the bridge and plunged into the river at around 10.15 am.
The bus (MH 40 N 9848) was on its way from Indore in Madhya Pradesh to Alamner in Jalgaon district of north Maharashtra, when the mishap occurred. There were conflicting versions as to the number of passengers on board the bus at the time of mishap. While one report said that there were 55 passengers on board the bus, eyewitness pegged the number of passengers on board the bus at 32.
Of the 55 passengers, 13 met watery grave, while the rest were rescued from the river. Of the dead, there were eight men, four women and one male child. By late in the afternoon, all the 13 bodies were recovered from the river bed. The rescued injured were rushed to a nearby hospital.
Mourning the loss of lives in the mishap, Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted: “The bus tragedy in Dhar, Madhya Pradesh is saddening. My thoughts are with those who have lost their loved ones. Rescue work is underway and local authorities are providing all possible assistance to those affected.
“An ex-gratia of Rs. 2 lakh each from PMNRF would be given to the next of kin of those who lost their lives due to the bus tragedy in Dhar, Madhya Pradesh. The injured would be given Rs. 50,000m: he said.
Conveying his deep condolences to those killed in the mishap, Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde announced a compensation of Rs.10 lakh for the kin of each deceased victim and said that the state government would bear the entire expeniture to be incurred towards treatment of those injured in the mishap.
Shinde asked the Jalgaon district authorities to hand over the victims’ bodies to their families after completing the necessary formalities.
Of the killed, Chandrakant Eknath Patil (45) and Prakash Shravan Chaudhary (40) were identified as the driver and conductors of the bus respectively. The six other dead were: Chetan Ramgopal Jangid (from Jaipur), Jagannath Hemraj Joshi (70) (from Udaipur), Nibaji Ananda Patil (60), Kamalabai Nibaji Patil (55) (both from Amalner in Jalgaon)m Aarva Murtuja Bora (27) (from Akola in Maharashtra) and Saifuddin Abbas Nurani (from Indore). The identities of other dead were not immediately known.
Maharashtra’s Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said that the state government and the MSRTC were coordinating with the Madhya Pradesh administration in matters relating to the mishap. “I am also in touch with Dhar collector and the state transport administration,” Fadanvis said, as he expressed condolences to the bereaved families and prayed for the speedy recovery of the injured passengers.