Bridge on Mumbai-Goa highway collapses; 22 people and 2 buses missing
Around 22 people are missing after a British-era bridge across the Savitri River on the Mumbai-Goa highway collapsed late on Tuesday night. Two Mumbai-bound buses are among the dozen or so vehicles that are believed to have fallen into the flooded river.
Officials of the district administration and police rushed to the spot and restored traffic through a new bridge not far away. Three teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), comprising of about 80 personnel including divers, have been pressed into rescue operations. Heavy rain in the area are slowing the rescue operations down.A helicopter of the Coast Guard is presently being used to spot possible survivors.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke with Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and offered his support.
No survivors or vehicles have been found so far. The Savitri River is presently seeing a swell in its water level thanks to heavy monsoonal rain that has lashed the area.
and offered
Traffic on the busy highway, which had been brought to a standstill, has been diverted to a new bridge nearby.
The bridge was about 5 km from the town of Mahad in Maharashtra’s Raigad District, about 170 km south of Mumbai. It collapsed around 11:30 pm on Tuesday.
Soon after the bridge collapsed, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis tweeted:
Spoke to Raigad SP & Collector about bridge collapse on Mumbai-Goa highway.
Administration has rushed to spot for rescue&immediate measures.
“There were 2 parallel bridges : one is a new bridge and one constructed during the British era.
The old one got collapsed.”
“The primary reason seems to be the high pressure caused due to flooding of river Savitri due to heavy rains in catchment of Mahabaleshwar.”
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