Raigad bus crash: 30 bodies pulled out from gorge, NDRF calls off operation

Mumbai: At least 30 bodies have been retrieved from a gorge where a bus packed with picnickers fell in Raigad district of Maharashtra on Saturday, killing 33 people, the police said on Sunday. 

The rescue operation at Ambenali Ghat near Poladpur town, was called off by the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) by Sunday noon.

So far, 30 bodies have been recovered and handed over to the relatives after completion of the due formalities, police official said. As the gorge is over 500-feet deep and located off a slippery road, the rescue teams are finding it difficult to retrieve the bodies, he said. 

Read: 33 die after bus plunges into 500-foot-deep gorge

The rescue teams had initially managed to trace 14 bodies, but it took nearly six hours to pull out the other corpses because of the difficult terrain of the area which is surrounded by dense vegetation, the official said. 

Senior police officials, including Raigad's superintendent of police, were at the spot, he said. 

Also Read: Raigad bus crash: When a WhatsApp group fell silent

The private bus was carrying 34 staff members of the Balasaheb Sawant Konkan Krishi Vidyapeeth at Dapoli on a picnic when it fell into the 500-feet deep gorge at Ambenali Ghat on Saturday afternoon. 

Earlier, SP Anil Paraskar had said the passengers were on their way to Mahabaleshwar, a hill station in Satara district in Western Maharashtra, when the driver lost control over the vehicle while negotiating a turn and it fell into the gorge. 

The lone survivor, Prakash Sawant, had said mud and loose stones on that particular stretch of the ghat road caused the bus tyres to skid.