Mahad bridge fall: Wreckage of second bus recovered

Pieces of the bus were found around 400m from the collapse site.

Ten days after the Indian Navy deployed its teams to carry out search for survivors and retrieve vehicles which got caught in the Mahad bridge collapse on Mumbai-Goa highway, Naval divers located another wreckage assessed to be part of the second bus on Saturday.

Naval divers recovering the wreck on Saturday.(HT Photo)

Post the recovery of the first bus two days ago, search continued downstream and wreckage was found about 400 metres from the bridge in an area where strong currents are observed. The wreckage was completely submerged at around 5meters depth.

When Naval divers assessed that the wreckage was recoverable, the NDRF teams were informed and cranes were requested for the recovery.

The Indian Navy team, comprising of personnel specialising in diving, have been searching for the wreckage and survivors since the incident occurred on August 4. The effort was in response to a request received from the state government on undertaking search along the river for survivors and bodies, said a navy official.

A Maharashtra government official said 42 people are missing. Since the operations began, 26 bodies have been retrieved.The search teams have not ruled out the possibility of other bodies being trapped in the submerged vehicles.