Rescue operations in Mahad likely to be called off today

Mahad: Even as the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and marine commandos of Indian Navy continued to recover bodies from the raging Savitri river in Mahad on Friday, there was still no sighting of the two ST buses and cars which had been swept away when the British-era bridge collapsed on Tuesday night. Heavy rain continued to hamper operations of deep-water divers to locate the vehicles even as eight more bodies were fished out, two of them from Mumbai, taking the total number of bodies found to 22.The two Mumbaikars were identified as Bhikaji Waghdhare from Jogeshwari and Santosh Gavtade from Nalasopara. Both were travelling on the Rajapur-Borivli bus.On Friday evening, NDRF and other forces expanded their search to six km before and after Ambet (that is, 17-18 km from the mishap spot) in their final attempt to find more bodies and the vehicles. NDRF officials did not deny the possibility of the coordinating agencies taking the help of satellites to locate metal bodies. However, if rain continues to hamper operations on Saturday, a collective decision might be taken to abandon the search operations by Saturday evening, NDRF sources said.The decision to expand search ops across a major part of the river has been taken since bodies at Kemburli had mostly been recovered, and there may be chances that a few other bodies and smaller vehicles have gone further away . According to NDRF rescuers, though a few bodies had been spotted as far as Anjarli (nearly 120km from the accident spot) and Harihareshwar, the river could not have taken buses beyond Dadli bridge as its shafts are narrow. "They must be stuck somewhere between the mishap spot and Dadli," said Navy officials who are concentrating their operation in a two-km range behind Visava Riverside hotel, around four km from the mishap site. Two buses, one car, an SUV and some other vehicles have gone missing along with 42 people. The 22 bodies recovered so far have all been recognized. Marine commandos said it was possible the bodies inside the vehicles, if any, may be decomposed beyond recognition by Saturday . An NDRF rescuer said normally such operations continue at the most for four days, which will be completed by Saturday evening. Ops are called off after that as bodies get decayed beyond recognition.