At least 24 people drowned and 17 sustained injuries after an overloaded private bus plunged into the Gobind Sagar reservoir at Bilaspur district in Himachal Pradesh on Wednesday morning. The bodies have been fished out from the reservoir, part of the Bhakra project, while search operations are on for the missing. Authorities are yet to verify the exact number of passengers on the bus.

Principal Secretary (revenue and disaster management) Tarun Shridhar, who along with state DGP Sanjay Kumar, flew to Bilaspur, said: “The search operation involving divers of the Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB), local fishermen, police and home guard teams will continue till Thursday. The bus was overloaded and several people were travelling on its roof”.

Survivors who swam to safety informed authorities of the accident. The private bus was on its way from Rishikesh to Bilaspur with most of its passengers being local commuters, including half a dozen students and nearly a dozen women.

Bilaspur Deputy Commissioner, Ajay Sharma, who was at the spot, told The Indian Express over phone that the 24 bodies have been identified and handed over to the next of kin. “I can’t say anything on the cause of the accident but survivors have informed us that the bus was overloaded and rashly driven,” he said.

The Additional District Magistrate at Bilaspur, Pradeep Thakur, will be the inquiry officer and has been asked to submit the report within a week to the government, CM Virbhadra Singh said in Shimla. He also appreciated the role of the administration and senior officers, who were rushed from Shimla to oversee the search operations.

The CM also announced an immediate relief of Rs 10,000 each to the next of the kin of the victims and Rs 5,000 each to the injured. He added that a further Rs 1.5 lakh will be distributed to the next of kin of the victims.

Authorities have recovered the wreckage of the bus as some bodies were trapped inside. Police sources said the driver had jumped out of the bus and has gone underground. “It happened all of a sudden that we did not get time to anticipate the accident. I broke open the window to eject myself and then tried to swim through the deep waters,” said Raj Kumar, one of the injured.

Meanwhile, Governor Urmila Singh and Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh expressed their condolences to the relatives of the victims.

Indian Express

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