Five of the missing tourists were neighbours in Goregaon building

The building residents, who came together during this difficult time, even sent out posters through WhatsApp seeking help and information on a dedicated number supplied by them

MUMBAI: Five of the persons missing in the Nepal flash floods were originally neighbours in the same building, Lakshachandi, at Goregaon’s Gokuldham. Avanish Merchant, Atul and Payal Das, and Laxminarayan and Vidyavati Acharrya were all close family friends. The Acharryas had very recently shifted to Vile Parle but continued to be part of the circle, and signed up together for the ill-fated tour to Kailash Mansarover.

Five of the missing tourists were neighbours in Goregaon building

The building residents, who came together during this difficult time, even sent out posters through WhatsApp seeking help and information on a dedicated number supplied by them.

Laxminarayan and Vidyavati Acharya’s family members have already reached Kathmandu to try and track them down. “However, all they managed to get from Hotel Shankar, where the five friends were staying, was their belongings,” said Rahul Desai, son-in-law of Avanish Merchant.

Desai himself had considered visiting Nepal but was deterred by accounts of people who said that Kathmandu was “chaotic”. He has been proactively dealing with various government departments, officials and agencies in the last few days to help figure out as much as possible about the five missing friends.

Desai is a member of a new WhatsApp group of family members of the missing tourists, who are now bracing themselves for the DNA testing. “The kin of those missing can either do their DNA testing from laboratories here and send the report on the email provided or go to Kathmandu and get themselves tested there,” he said.

What has been particularly upsetting for him is instances of grieving families being approached by fraudsters looking for quick money. But the bigger challenge, he said, would be to get the paperwork processing done since many factors such as banking, insurance and other documents would be dependent on that.

“Since there is no way to get OTPs with the mobiles now lost, access to important documents could prove difficult and could probably take months,” he said. “Considering the tragedy these families have already been through, the government should facilitate fast-tracking documentation. They should not be made to wait for months.”