An official said that a bus carrying over 30 passengers plunged off a bridge into the Narmada river in the Dhar district of Madhya Pradesh on Monday morning, killing at least 13 people, including four women and a kid.
When it fell into the river at approximately 9:30 am, the bus belonged to the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) and was travelling from Indore in Madhya Pradesh to Amalner in the neighbouring Jalgaon district of neighbouring Maharashtra, according to MSRTC managing director Shekhar Channe.
According to a report from news agency PTI, the collision happened on National Highway No. 3 (the Agra-Mumbai route), near the borders of Dhar and Khargone. According to the report, the bus struck a bridge railing between Khalghat and Thigari, around 230 kilometres from Jalgaon, before crashing into the river.
Rakesh Gupta, the inspector general of police for the Indore Zone, informed PTI that “thirteen corpses have been recovered.” Among these, eight have been named.
The bus’s conductor and driver, Chandrakant Eknath Patil and Prakash Shravan Chaudhary, respectively, are among the dead. They were both from Jalgaon’s Amalner.
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The identities of the remaining six survivors have been made as follows: Chetan Ramgopal Jangid, from Jaipur, Rajasthan; Jagannath Hemraj Joshi, from Udaipur, Rajasthan; Nibaji Ananda Patil, from Amalner, Jalagaon; Kamalabai Nibaji Patil, from Jalagaon; Aarva Murtuja Bora, from Akola, Maharashtra; and Saifuddin Abbas Nurani.
Narottam Mishra, the home minister for Madhya Pradesh, informed reporters in Bhopal that up to 15 individuals had been saved.
He said the rescue effort was underway, and the river current was strong. A crane assisted in removing the bus from the water.
The MSRTC declared an ex-gratia of Rs. 10 lakh to the dead person’s nearest kin on orders from Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.
This is in addition to the Rs 2 lakh that the Prime Minister’s Office announced earlier in the day.
Shivraj Chauhan, the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, said that earlier in the day, he spoke with Eknath Shinde, his counterpart in Maharashtra, and updated him about the incident and the rescue effort.
Mr Shinde said that he had given the Jalgaon collector specific instructions to organize the rescue effort and provide care to the wounded passengers.
When Shinde heard about the disaster, he called MP CM Chouhan immediately. He asked him to contact the Khargone and Dhar district administrations to ask the government to provide the accident victims with the support they need.
The Jalgaon district collectorate has established three hotline lines: 09555899091, 0257-2223180, and 0257-2217193.
Citizens may contact the MSRTC’s hotline at 022-23023940 to learn more about the accident and their relatives aboard the bus.
It’s interesting to note that the 10-year-fitness-old’s certificate was going to expire in 10 days.
The bus was registered with the Nagpur rural Regional Transport Office on June 12, 2012. According to a senior RTO official who the PTI cited, its certificate, which indicates that the vehicle is roadworthy, was scheduled to expire on July 27, 2022.
For information on the accident, individuals should call the MSRTC helpdesk at 022-23023940.
