Mahad tragedy: 9 days on, one ST bus fished out of river

Of the two state transport buses that plunged to their deaths nine days ago in the Mahad bridge collapse tragedy, one was finally fished out from the Savitri River by the rescue agencies.

The bus was pulled to the shore on Thursday evening with the help of a crane, but, unfortunately, none of the 15 people still missing were found on board the bus.

The ST bus was hauled out with the help of cranes. The roof was found 3 metres away from the base of the bus. Pic/Dilip Jadhav

Navy team credited
Sushma Satpute, Sub-Divisional Officer (Mahad) said that three rescue agencies - the NDRF, Coastal Guard and Navy commanders - were handling the search operations. "On Wednesday night, the Navy rescue team traced the bus at a distance of around 150-200 meters from the bridge. "It was the Rajapur-Borivli bus. On Thursday, we found it in four pieces, but at the same spot, and they were fished out safely," she said.

When news of the bus being found spread, the relatives of the still missing people rushed to the spot, however, there we no bodies on the bus.

Identifying the spot
Lieutenant commander Shirish Pavle says his team was working continuously to figure out the location of the bus. In the last two days, Pavle says they figured that the flow of the water in the day and muddiness was making it impossible to search closer to the bridge. "To avoid the flow, we were heading out for the operation at 5 am and carried on till it became too strong again. We sent down a rope with a heavy weight inside which hit against some object inside. Our diver then went to explore but with the water flow high again, came back empty-handed. We, however, marked the spot with a balloon so we could return for a follow-up," he said.

On Thursday morning at 6 am, two divers went in again, this time successfully tracing the bus. The roof was at a distance of three meters from the base of the bus. "We then informed the authorities who arranged for the cranes to fish it out," added Pavle.