All required govt machinery deployed for rescue ops: PWD minister

Announcing inspection of all British era bridges that are more than 100 years old, PWD minister Chandrakant Patil on Wednesday told the state assembly that the collapsed bridge had been inspected in May 2016 and was found fit for vehicles, even those as heavy as 20 tons.

Making a statement in the state assembly soon after the question hour began at 11am, Patil, who is also minister for rehabilitation, informed that the government machinery had reached the mishap spot 15 minutes after the incident. He added that he along with chief minister Devendra Fadnavis has been coordinating the entire rescue and relief operation from the control tower in Mumbai right from midnight.

Patil, Fadnavis and leader of Opposition Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil visited the accident spot and reviewed the rescue and relief work.

The minister also told the state assembly that two choppers from Indian Air Force and Coast Guard have been deployed in addition to four National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams each with 40 trained personnel. He added that the NDRF teams are using state-of-the-art magnets to trace the drowned buses.

Patil said the NDRF has also deployed state-of-the-art boats for search operations, adding that the heavy flow of water and winds were hampering the rescue work.