Low visibility and strong currents interfere as different teams hunt for those who drowned in Savitri river on Tuesday night
It's almost four days after rescue agencies proved unsuccessful in tracing the two State Transport buses and the SUV that fell into the Savitri river on the Mahad Poladpur road. To aid in the operations the state government brought in a sonar camera system on Saturday.
Also read - Mahad bridge collapse: 7 more bodies spotted in river, total death toll rises to 21
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A sonar camera captures images over 700 feet deep inside the water within a 400 feet radius. It was installed in a villager’s boat and was released last afternoon along with the National Disaster Response Force and Navy rescue teams. However, they were not able to trace the vehicles.
Sonar cameras. Pic/Pradep Dhivar
Eknath Shinde, Thane Guardian Minister, and Shiv Sena leader was in the boat along with local MLA and fellow Shiv Sena leader Bharat Gogawale.
Anupam Shrivastav, NDRF, Commandant, claims they have used all available technology to trace the vehicles. “Efforts have been marred as the current is strong. We suspect the buses are in a seven-km radius,” he added.
R K Singh, Commandant, Coastal Guard, said, “On Friday, due to rains, the rescue operations were not successful, but they were resumed on Saturday. We also sent our divers in the river, but visibility was low. We are conducting operations near Ambet village, 20 kilometres from the spot, as we suspect the bodies may have floated there,” he added. The Indian Navy team also deployed 15 and 20 kg magnets in order to detect the ST bus. However, they later realised that since the buses were constructed of aluminium, magnets would be of little use.
Also read - Mahad bridge collapse: Strong currents hamper operations, death toll rises
Two more bodies were recovered on Saturday. One was identified as Dinesh Kamble, a resident of Thane who was travelling in the ST bus. The other body hasn’t yet been identified. Authorities say that a total of 41 persons drowned when the three vehicles fell into the river. Of these, 31 persons were aboard the buses. A total of 24 bodies have been recovered so far.
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