Mahad bridge fall: Families lose hope

MAHAD (RAIGAD): When the Navy’s divers on Thursday brought up parts of the buses from the Savitri river without any body in them, the families of the victims lost

MAHAD (RAIGAD): When the Navy’s divers on Thursday brought up parts of the buses from the Savitri river without any body in them, the families of the victims lost the little hope they were holding on to.

HT Image

As the search and rescue teams failed to recover any more bodies 10 days after the century-old bridge on the Mumbai-Goa highway, hit by relentless rain, collapsed with at least 40 people in two buses and a private vehicle, the relatives of those still missing started returning to their homes.

“The administration, NDRF and the Navy worked hard, but our relatives could not be found. We have decided to go home and perform their last rites,” said Pramod Surve, the brother-in-law of Vilas Desai, a bus conductor on one of the buses.

The government and NDRF teams, however, said the search for the missing people will go on for a few more days.

“We will continue our search operation till we receive further orders,” said Anupan Srivastava, Commandant, NDRF.

According to a government estimate, there were at least 40 people in the two buses and the private vehicle.

Search teams have so far recovered 26 bodies.

On Friday morning, the waiting families performed the last rites for the missing on the banks of the Savitri, which had relented a bit after being swollen for more than a fortnight owing to the heavy rains. For the relatives, recovery of the bus wreckage was their last hope of finding their loved ones. They hoped the bodies that did not floated up to the surface may have been trapped in the vehicles.

“When we heard about the bus wreckage, it rekindled some hope. But as the broken parts of bus were pulled out, we saw no bodies and decided to leave,” Surve said.

Another relative, who had come from Mumbai, said, “We are leaving with a heavy heart. We pray to god that what we suffered, no one else should.”

As search operations for the missing wind down, the victims’ families said they hope the focus now shifts to how the long neglect of the Mahad bridge cost several lives.

So far, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis has ordered a probe into the bridge collapse, and has said the state government will audit other old bridges across Maharashtra.