Search teams from various Central and State agencies on Thursday recovered as many as 13 bodies from the swollen waters of Savithri River, even as the Maharashtra Government ordered a judicial enquiry into the factors that contributed to the collapse of the British-era bridge near Mahad town in Raigad District late on Tuesday night.
A day after 30 people travelling in two buses and six private vehicles that fell into the river reportedly went missing the Raigad District authorities put the number of persons missing due to the bridge collapse at 42.
Teams belonging to the Navy, Indian Air Force, Coast Guard and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel, that resumed search operations on Thursday, recovered as many as 13 bodies from the river.
Authorities identified nine out of the 13 bodies recovered. One of the bodies was that of State Transport bus driver SS Kamble, whose mortal remains were recovered from Anjarle creek. Kamble was driving the ST bus that was on its way from Jaigadh in Ratnagiri district to Borivli in north Mumbai when it plunged into the Savithri river from the edge of the collapsed bridge.
Making a statement in the State Assembly on the Mahad bridge collapse, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said that his Government was ordering a judicial enquiry into the factors that contributed to the collapse of the Mahad bridge and also to fix responsibility for negligence leading to the mishap.
Describing the incident as most “tragic”, the Chief Minister said, “The State Government is ordering a judicial enquiry into the incident”.
Fadnavis also said that the State Government had requested a team of three experts from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay — comprising Prof Jyoti Prakash (water expert), Jangid (structural expert) and VS Vasudevan (geothermal expert) — to visit the mishap site for inspection and ground assessment.
“Similarly, the State Government will be undertaking a structural audit of all the old bridges in the State. We will do this in a time-bound manner,” he said.
Fadnavis said that his predecessor Prithiviraj Chavan and former Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar had in 2013 received complaints about the dilapidated Mahad bridge.
Earlier in the day, the first of the two bodies were recovered from the beaches of Anjarla at Dapoli and Harihareshwar. While a few of the bodies were recovered from the riverbed near Kemburli, more bodies were recovered near Anjarla and Harihareshwar beaches. One body each was recovered from Varati, Tharodi and Mahapral.
Incidentally, two of the 13 bodies recovered on Thursday were that of members of a family travelling by a Tavera jeep.