Mahad bridge fall: Navy divers find wreckage of missing buses

MUMBAI: The Indian Navy’s divers on Thursday located pieces of wreckage of the two buses that fell into a swollen Savitri river more than a week ago, when the bridge

MUMBAI: The Indian Navy’s divers on Thursday located pieces of wreckage of the two buses that fell into a swollen Savitri river more than a week ago, when the bridge at Mahad on the MumbaiGoa highway collapsed, killing 40 people.

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“Spot diving was done despite the heavy currents and presence of crocodiles in the river. NDRF teams have been informed,” said commander Rahul Sinha, chief public relations officer (Defence).

“The wreckage seems to be parts of the buses. They were found approximately 170m and 200m from the collapsed bridge,” he said. By evening, two cranes were brought to the river and the wreckage of one of the buses was recovered.

The wreckage was completely submerged — about 4 to 8 metres deep. Sources said the anchor used to pull out the wreckage was damaged. The rescue personnel had to use another anchor.

An Indian Navy team has been searching for survivors since the bridge fell into the river on August 2. So far, 26 bodies have been recovered, and agencies do not rule out the possibility of others being trapped in the vehicles.

“The current was so strong, we were unable search for bodies. The search will happen only when the wreckage is completely pulled out from the bottom,” Sinha said.