A massive landslide buried two Himachal Pradesh roadways buses, killing at least 46 persons and injuring several others at Kotpuri near Padhar on the Mand-Pathankot national highway, officials said.
The toll was set to rise as over 50 passengers were travelling in the two buses hit by the landslide which was triggered by a cloud burst, they said. Speaking to ANI, Mandi Deputy Commissioner Sandeep Kadam said 46 bodies have been recovered so far, while rescue operations are underway.
Teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), the Army and the police were rushed and heavy earth-moving machinery deployed at the gorge where the two buses lay buried under a heap of debris.
Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh visited the accident site and announced an ex-gratia of Rs 5 lakh each for next of kin of the deceased.
Speaking to the media at the site, Singh asserted that the government will provide funds for reconstruction of the damaged houses and added that rescue personnel would not rest until all the passengers were found.
Former Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal also visited Mandi earlier in the day, to take stock of the situation.
Prime Minister Modi took to Twitter to offer condolences to the families of the deceased.
Himachal Transport minister GS Bali said the toll could climb to 50 in the incident.
One of the buses was going from Manali to Katra and another from Manali to Chamba. The buses had halted for a tea break at Kotrupi in the night when the tragedy struck, said special secretary (Disaster) DD Sharma.
The landslide swept away the road and the buses for almost 800 metres down into a gorge and there was no trace of one of the buses which was completely buried under the debris so far.
The number of passengers in the buses could be between 30 and 40 as the number of passengers who boarded the bus en route was not known.
The Army and NDRF teams have reached the spot and started rescue operation along with the police, administration and local people. The IG central range and Deputy Commissioner and SP are on the spot, special secretary (Disaster) DD Sharma said.
Director General of Police Somesh Goyal said that as per preliminary information there were eight passengers in the Manali-Katra bus while 47 passengers were travelling in the other bus. Authorities have been directed to arrange for on the spot postmortem, he added.
So far seventeen bodies have been recovered, which included the driver and the conductor of Chamba depot bus Chanden Sharma and Satpal.
This is the third such incident in Himachal. In 1988, 45 bus passengers were buried in a landslide near Matiyana in Shimla district and 42 passengers were buried in another mishap at Luggar Hati in Kullu district in 1994.
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