Mumbai-Goa Highway Bridge Collapse: Giant Magnet to Locate Missing Buses

Mahad (Maharashtra): Two more bodies were recovered on Thursday morning after a colonial era bridge linking Mumbai to Goa collapsed on Tuesday night.

In the morning, rescuers fished out bodies of a man and a woman from Savitri river and a massive search operation is going on to trace rest of the missing persons.

Police suspect that one of the bodies belongs to SS Kamble - driver of one of the two missing buses. "The body of a woman was found at Harihareshwar in Raigad," sources in the NDRF said.

Yesterday, two bodies were recovered by the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) officials during the rescue operation.

At least 20 people went missing as two buses have been swept away in swollen Savitri River following the bridge collapse incident near Mahad in Maharashtra's Raigad district.

Meanwhile, a NDRF boat overturned while the search operation was on. "All the officers are safe and we have intensified our rescue operation," NDRF official said.

Meanwhile, a 300 kg magnet was lowered this morning into the swollen Savitri River to trace two missing buses.

Navy divers have resumed operations this morning, a Defence spokesperson said, adding, Chetak helicopter of Coast Guard also began sortie of the affected area on Thursday.

A crane lowered a 300 kgs magnet into the river this morning, with the hope of tracing missing vehicles.

Something has got stuck to the magnet and efforts are on to pull it out of the river, a local official said.

Besides the two buses, several private vehicles were also believed to have fallen into the swollen river.

Twenty-eight Marine Commandos, over 100 jawans from National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and 25 personnel from the Coast Guard were pressed into search and rescue operation yesterday.

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis accompanied by PWD Minister Chnadrakant Patil and opposition leader Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil of Congress, yesterday conducted an aerial survey of the area.

According to district officials, one of the buses was proceeding to Mumbai from Jaigad in Raigad, and the other was on its way to Borivali (Mumbai) from Rajapur.