The search teams from the Navy and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) recovered the wreckage of a Chevrolet Tavera SUV and two bodies trapped in it from the bed of Savithri river on Sunday, 12 days after a British-era bridge collapsed at Mahad on the Mumbai-Goa highway in Maharashtra's Raigad District.
The recovery of the mangled remains of Chevrolet Tavera SUV (baring registration number MH04 GD 7837) and two bodies trapped in it came hours after the Navy divers located the wreckage 300 Meters away from under the collapsed bridge.
"The wreckage was found 300 meters away from the collapsed bridge under four to five meters of water. The Navy and NDRF teams together lifted and toed the wreckage to the shore. later, they extricated the two bodies trapped inside the vehicle," a defence spokesperson said.
The officials said that two bodies recovered were that of men. "Given that the bodies were under water for 12 days, they are in a highly decomposed state," a senior official said.
With the recovery of two more bodies, the Raigad district administration pegged the total number bodies recovered from the Savithri river bed at 28. The officials said that fourteen persons more were still missing.
On Saturday night, the search teams had recovered the wreckage of the second ill-fated state transport bus which was one of the two buses that had plunged into the swollen Savithri river after a British era bridge collapsed on August 2.
Earlier on Thursday, the Navy and NDRF personnel had extricated a major portion of the wreckage of the first of the two State transport buses that had plunged into the river on August 2.
As many as 42 persons had gone missing on the night of August 2 after the two state transport buses and a few 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 in Raigad District on the Mumbai-Goa highway.
The dilapidated bridge, constructed in 1928, had caved in at 11.30 pm on that night, following heavy rains and flooding in the Savithri river.