He said the bridge, constructed in the 1940s, likely collapsed because it was buffeted by strong currents from the Savitri River, which was flooded by monsoon rains. Almost a dozen vehicles, including two State Transport buses travelling over the bridge, are feared to have flown away with the water current.
Advertisement
The bridge was about 5 km from the town of Mahad in Maharashtra’s Raigad District, about 170 km south of Mumbai. In fact, there were two parallel bridges – one new and one old. The Goa- Mumbai highway bridge was collapsed suddenly due to heavy flood water flow. The single-lane bridge was built in British-era colonial times. The vehicles, unable to see the missing section in the dark, fell into the river, officials said. “We will do whatever is required”, the chief minister said.
He further directed National Highways Authority of India to immediately undertake fix work on Mumbai-Goa NH & complete work before 25 August 2016.
28 Marine Commandos, over 100 jawans from National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and 25 personnel from the Coast Guard were pressed into search and rescue operation yesterday.
A judicial inquiry has also been launched into this incident, with a team of experts from the Indian Institute of Technology in Mumbai already assembled, Fadnavis tweeted.
The buses with 11 passengers each went missing and there was no contact with either their drivers or the passengers, Raigad Collector Sheetal Ugale said.
No survivors or bodies have been recovered despite a gruelling 14-hour search and rescue operation yesterday.
Police department diverted the traffic from this bridge to a new bridge which was nearby.
“There is no confirmed assessment about casualties since the area is very dark”.
Advertisement
Mumbai-Goa highway bridge collapse: Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to Fadnavis and was briefed about the bridge collapse.”The PM offered all help in rescue and relief operations”, Fadnavis said.
