Seventeen bodies have been identified and handed over to families after autopsy.
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Authorities have made it clear now that at least 42 people fell in Savitri River with the vehicles in which they were traveling are missing and feared dead.
Another senior police official, who was present at the spot, said some of the bodies traced so far were recovered as far as about 120 kms from the mishap site.
The team found total seven bodies yesterday and they confirmed that seven more bodies were found by local fishermen taking total of recovered bodies to 14.
“Search and rescue operation is underway on a large scale in which 103 NDRF men are there, local who are able swimmers and know about the river bank and Navy has been roped in to carry out search and rescue operation”, she added. Two Mumbai-bound buses are among the dozen or so vehicles that are believed to have fallen into the flooded river. This shows that there’s a need to extend scope of search operations, he said.
He, however, said the incessant rains were hampering the pace of search operation.
She said that the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) officers have been deployed and locals have also been roped in to carry out search and rescue operation.
Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said that a team of IIT experts has been sent to the site already.
The state government on Thursday announced a judicial probe in the collapse of a British-era bridge in which at least 22 people in two buses went missing.
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He announced ex gratia of Rs. five lakh to the kin of the deceased. The single-lane bridge was built in British-era colonial times. The river, which turned torrent due to heavy downpour in its catchment area in Mahabaleshwar, weakened the foundations of the nearly-century-old bridge, which ultimately gave way on Tuesday night.
