At least 42 passengers were burnt alive and five others injured when a private bus coming from Bengaluru to Hyderabad burst into flames after hitting a culvert early on Wednesday.
Deputy Inspector General of Police, Naveen Chand, said that 42 charred bodies were recovered from the gutted bus and efforts are being made to recognise them. The driver and cleaner of the bus are in police custody for questioning. The five injured passengers were admitted to DRDl Apollo Hospital in Hyderabad.
Mahabubnagar district Superintendent of Police Nagendar Kumar, said that the accident occurred when the driver of the Volvo bus tried to over take another vehicle and hit the culvert. “This resulted in diesel tank of the bus catching fire,” he said.
The accident occurred at Palem village in Kothakota Mandal of Mahabubnagar district about 150 kms south Hyderabad. The Volvo bus, belonging to Jabbar Travels, had left Bengaluru around 11 pm and was to reach Hyderabad at 6 am.
The State Government ordered a probe into the cause of the accident. Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy spoke to the district collector Girija Shankar and other officials and directed them to extend all necessary help to the victims.
The police has strengthened the security at the Jabbar Travels offices in Hyderabad and Bengaluru as large number of wailing and anxious relatives have gathered there to find out the fate of the victims. The management of Jabbar Travels is missing and police is trying to find them for questioning.
State Transport Minister Botsa Satyanayrana expressing shock over the incident said that the over-speeding by private buses has become a major cause of accidents. He also said that controlling speed of these buses was not in hands of the Government. “We have been appealing to the people to avoid travelling in these buses and instead use more of State-owned buses, but they still prefer these buses,” he said.
This is second big accident involving private buses in less than one-and-a-half years. Around 30 passengers were killed when a bus of Kaleshwari Travels was going from Hyderabad to Shiridi and plunged into a valley in Osmanabad district in June 2012.