Using a 300-kg magnet to locate the two Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) buses that plunged into the Savitri in Mahad has not proven as useful as previously thought, as the roofs of these buses are made of fibre, while the belly of the engine is coated with bituminous paint, which negates the magnetic properties of the buses’ aluminium body, Navy officials said.
Officials suspect that at least one bus has been stuck 4km from the collapsed bridge on the Mumbai-Goa road. The river turns at a spot that is situated behind Visava Hotel, where a whirlpool exists. Two dead bodies have been retrieved from here.
The Navy, which had been given a 20-kg magnet to use on the bridge parallel to the one that had collapsed, stopped a MSRTC bus headed towards Mangoan to make sure that the magnet was functioning.
However, the officials realised that the magnet wasn’t sticking to the roof of the bus or the engine’s belly.
“We realised that the roof of the bus is made of fibre and plastic. The belly of the engine that would be protruding out, if the bus was turned upside down in the river, is coated in bituminous paint, which prevents rusting,” said a Navy official, on the condition of anonymity.
“This means the bus has to be on its sides for the magnet to be of use. We will have to rely heavily on sonar cameras,” said the official.
Retrieval operations of the buses and bodies by the NDRF, Coast Guard and the Navy have almost completely ceased at the accident site itself, with operations being shifted up to 20 km downstream, where the Savitri meets the Arabian Sea.
This point is being monitored by the rescue agencies as there is a slight chance that the river might carry vehicles or bodies into the sea.
Meanwhile, Cabinet minister Eknath Shinde rode in a boat from the area where parts of the bus was retrieved to an area near the collapse site.
He spoke about a small boat to which cameras were attached and claimed that their pictures and videos would be relayed via sonar waves and could detect bodies up to 700 metres below and 400 metres across.
“I manned the boat to double check the clarity of the video for myself. I could see the river bed very clearly,” he said.
Union minister of state for social justice Ramdas Athawale visited the site as well.
The rescue teams found three bodies on Saturday of which two — those of Dinesh Kambli, Narendra Shrikanth Kamble — have been identified.
