An Indian tourist bus that plunged into the Marsyangdi River in central Nepal last week, resulting in the deaths of 25 Indian pilgrims, was successfully retrieved on Monday. The operation involved the use of cranes to recover the bus, which had been submerged in the river since the accident occurred on August 23.
The Uttar Pradesh-registered bus veered off the Mugling-Anbukhaireni section of the national highway and fell into the fast-flowing Marsyangdi River at Abu Khaireni in Tanahun district, located approximately 90 kilometers west of Kathmandu.
Deputy Spokesperson of the Armed Police Force, Shailendra Thapa, reported that the retrieval process began early Monday morning, with the road section being closed for four hours. A single crane initially attempted the operation, but another crane was later brought in to assist in pulling the bus out of the river.
The tragic accident resulted in the deaths of 25 pilgrims from Maharashtra, including the driver and his assistant, both from Uttar Pradesh. Additionally, 16 passengers sustained injuries. The group of 104 pilgrims was traveling in three buses as part of a pilgrimage tour in Nepal.
The road section, which had been closed during the retrieval, was reopened by evening once the bus was successfully recovered. The exact cause of the accident remains under investigation.
Following the retrieval, post-mortem examinations of the 27 deceased Indians were conducted at a hospital in Bagmati province on August 25. The bodies of 25 pilgrims were subsequently transported to Maharashtra’s Jalgaon via an Indian Air Force (IAF) military transport aircraft. The remaining 16 injured passengers are receiving medical treatment at Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital in Kathmandu.
Authorities are continuing to investigate the circumstances surrounding the accident to determine the cause and prevent similar incidents in the future.
