Maharashtra’s Raigad District 33 Picnickers Killed on Way to Mahabaleshwar as Bus Falls Down

Around 35 staff members of the Dapoli Agriculture University were headed to Mahabaleshwar when the bus met with an accident.

Mumbai: At least 33 people were killed when a bus carrying 34 passengers fell down a gorge in Ambenali Ghat region of Maharashtra’s Raigad district on Saturday.
Thirty-four staff members of the Dapoli Agriculture University were headed to Mahabaleshwar when the bus met with an accident.
The bus was carrying 34 staff members of an agriculture university in the Konkan region. It fell into a 500-feet deep gorge at Ambenali Ghat near Poladpur town, around 180 km from here, District Collector Vijay Suryawanshi told PTI.
A team of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) has been called to the spot to take pull out the bodies from the ill-fated bus. A dozen ambulances and 15 doctors have also reached the spot, Additional SP Sanjay Patil said.
One of the passengers, identified as Prakash Rajaram Savant Desai, reportedly survived the accident as he jumped from the bus.
SP Anil Paraskar said the passengers were on their way to Mahabaleshwar, a hill station in Satara district, for a picnic, when the driver lost control over the vehicle while negotiating a turn and fell into the gorge.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has conveyed his condolences to the families of those killed in the bus accident. “Pained by the loss of lives due to a bus accident in Maharashtra’s Raigad district. My condolences to those who lost their loved ones,” the PMO tweeted quoting Modi.

Expressing grief over the death of 33 people, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said the administration was trying to provide all the necessary assistance.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi also expressed sorrow over the accident. Fadnavis said he was pained to know about the loss of lives in the accident.

Rahul Gandhi tweeted, “I’m sorry to hear about the terrible bus accident in Raigad, Maharashtra in which a large number of people have been killed and many others injured. I appeal to Congress party workers in the area to provide all possible assistance to the injured & families of those who have died.”

On July 19, a similar accident had claimed 14 lives in Uttarakhand’s Tehri district.