Thursday, 12 August 2021 | PNS | Shimla
Bus, truck fall into Sutlej river; search going on
At least 10 people died and 13 others sustained injuries while several others are still missing after a massive landslide near Nigul Sari in Himachal Pradesh’s Kinnaur district on Wednesday afternoon.
Several vehicles, including an ill-fated Himachal Road Transport Corporation (HRTC) bus carrying passengers, were buried under boulders and debris. The HRTC bus was on its way from Reckong Peo in Kinnaur to Haridwar.
The driver of the bus who survived the tragedy informed district authorities at Kinnaur about the tragedy which took place around 12:30 pm.
“10 residents of Himachal, including one child and five women, have died in the incident while 13 injured have been rescued (till now) during the rescue operations,” said a Government official.
The HRTC bus and three light vehicles were buried under the debris, while a truck hit by a shooting boulder plunged into the Sutlej river.
Till the filing of this report, the rescue operations were going on as no traces of passengers and the bus, which was suspected to be trapped in the debris, were found at the accident site.
“The driver and conductor of the bus were rescued while the HRTC bus, which was believed to be carrying over 30 passengers, seemed to have fallen into the Sutlej river. The rescue teams are gone searching the riverbed to find the bus,” the official said.
He said that rescue operations by teams of the ITBP, the National Disaster Response Force, the CISF and local police were earlier hindered at the site as the shooting boulders continued to roll down, posing grave risk to the teams.
The traffic was not restored at the site till the filing of the report.
The Chief Minister Jairam Thakur told the mediapersons that rescue operation is still underway and would continue all night till all the persons are recovered.
On the number of missing bus passengers, Thakur said that the driver and bus conductor were rescued and admitted to hospital. They both were injured and were not in a condition to say anything, he said.
He said that arrangements have been made for providing medical treatment to the injured and district administration had been directed to provide all possible help to them.
Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah had called Chief Minister Jairam Thakur and assured all possible help from the Centre in the rescue operations.
During this monsoon season, several people have died in landslides in the hill State.
Earlier on July 25, a landslide had hit a tourist vehicle near Batsari, on the Sangla-Chitkul road in Kinnaur district, killing nine persons, including four women and three members of a family.
On August 4, the State Government informed the Vidhan Sabha that at least 218 people have lost their lives in the last three weeks while 12 are still missing due to heavy rains in Himachal Pradesh during monsoon season.
