Two Mumbai-bound buses are among the dozen or so vehicles that are believed to have fallen into the flooded river.
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Two bodies have been recovered, Ranjan said.
Fadnavis said: “There were two parallel bridges; one is a new bridge and one constructed during the British era”.
The rescuers have recovered two dead bodies from the overflowing Savitri river and a massive search is on for others who are missing, Raigad Collector Sheetal Ugale had confirmed.
The collapse is the latest in a string of deadly accidents in India where safety rules and regulations may not be enforced and poor building material is used. It had cleared the inspection and was declared fit for vehicular traffic.
Fadnavis said Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had “assured all help from the central government”. “The old one collapsed”, he said.
He further directed National Highways Authority of India to immediately undertake fix work on Mumbai-Goa NH & complete work before 25 August 2016.
The incident took place on Tuesday night near Mahad, 170km from Mumbai, amid heavy rainfall.
“The flow of currents is very strong, making it hard to launch a full-scale search operation”, he said. Heavy rain in the area are slowing the rescue operations down. “We will resume the search and rescue operation on a war footing tomorrow morning”, the police officer said. Also the drivers and conductors of the buses were missing including the passengers travelling in it. The single-lane bridge was built in British-era colonial times.
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Senior National Congress Party leader Ajit Pawar confronted the government, in the Maharashtra legislature which is now in session, for “allowing traffic on the old bridge when there was a newly constructed parallel bridge” and demanded that Maharashtra PWD minister be tried for “culpable homicide”. During rescue efforts on Thursday, an NDRF boat reportedly capsized because of strong currents.
