British-era bridge on Mumbai-Goa highway washed away in flood, 28 missing

It is in the monsoon that the lush green Goa-Mumbai route turns into a travellers' paradise. Instead the idyllic highway turned into the scene of a horrific nightmare yesterday, as the swollen Savitri river swallowed a British-era bridge joining Mahad-Poladpur, along with 28 travellers who were heading towards Mumbai on Tuesday night.

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The bridge over the Savitri river had been crumbling for quite a few years and had been held up by crash barriers. Pics/Pradeep Dhivar

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The disaster struck around midnight, when nearly 80% of the derelict old bridge was washed away in the flash floods caused by non-stop rain. Since it was dark, it is possible that motorists didn't realise what had happened and kept driving, finally plunging into the river. Two tourist buses and three cars are thought have fallen into the river, although neither the vehicles nor any of the victims had been fished out even 24 hours after the disaster struck.

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Pranjali Sonawane, Sub- Divisional Police Officer, Mahad who was on the spot said, "We were about 10 minutes away, at Dasturi Naka, when we received the emergency call at 11:45 pm from the Raigad control room about the bridge collapse. But we didn't find any of the victims of the vehicles. All we found was a bag that we suspect belongs to the driver of a bus that fell into the river."

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Dam released
It had rained non-stop over the past two days in the Raigad district and nearly 1,000 times the normal rainfall had collected within 48 hours. To relieve the pressure in the catchment areas, the authorities released water from the MIDC and Ranbajari dams, never imagining how that would contribute to yesterday's disaster at the bridge. Soon enough, river Savitriwas engorged with the excess water and some time around the midnight of Tuesday, it washed away the 82-year-old bridge at Mahad.

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Currents hamper rescue
An official from NDRF involved in the rescue operation said, "More than 100 people from Mumbai and Pune started the rescue operation but haven't managed to find any of the victims yet. Every time we tried diving in, we kept getting battered by the strong river currents. Even the 300-kg iron anchor we used in the operation was no match for the fast flow of the river."

NDRF commandant Sachidanand Gawade said, "Around 4 am, a team of 120 jawans, 12 boats and drivers rushed to the spot, but due to heavy rains, the river water is turned muddy due to which its a tuf timer for divers as due to muddy its difficult to see inside the river. Our jawans has also used Magnets so that such magnets could help us to get some clues about the buses. While one of the magnets in huge quantity has stuck up and with help of crane we will able to pull it out."

Experienced divers from the Coast Guard had no luck either, as the force of the current would neither allow them to swim properly, nor could they see anything. At the same time, the lashing rains continued and rendered the Coast Guard helicopters useless.

Crumbling bridge
The bridge had been built during the British era, in 1928. for several years, it had been crumbling to bits and was barely held up with the help of patchwork repairs and supportive barriers.

Despite the fact that a new bridge was built right next to it, the old bridge continued used by motorists going from Goa to Mumbai.

"The bridge was too old and weak to be used. In 2013, British experts had written to the local tehsildar informing that the bridge should be closed down, but nobody took action. They could have easily either repaired it or shut it down without affecting motorists too much, since they could keep using the new bridge," said Vijay Jadhav, vice-president of the Mahad division of Shiv Sena in Mahad.