Tanahun bus mishap : India rushes Minister Raksha Khadse to Kathmandu

Kathmandu, August 24 - The Indian government flew Minister of State for Youth Affairs and Sports, Raksha Khadse to Kathmandu on Saturday to meet the passengers injured in Nepal’s bus accident that occurred on Friday and oversee the repatriation of the remains of those killed in the mishap.

Under the direction of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Raksha Khadse is expected to arrive in Kathmandu by 10:30 A.M on Saturday. She will be accompanied by an MLA from Maharashtra’s Jalgaon district.

As many as 16 injured Indian passengers are currently receiving treatment at the Teaching Hospital in Maharajganj, under the supervision of doctors from the Indian Embassy. The hospital has made special arrangements for their care.

Additionally, three individuals with minor injuries have been accommodated at the Gorkha Niwas Guest House, coordinated by the Indian Embassy in Kathmandu.

Given the logistical challenges of transporting multiple bodies and injured individuals on a commercial flight, the Maharashtra government has requested the Indian Air Force (IAF) to arrange a special flight.

This flight is likely to fly from Gorakhpur to Nashik which is the nearest airport to Jalgaon – and the state government will bear all the expenses for this operation.The bus carrying mostly Indian tourists hailing from Maharashtra plunged into a gorge of the Marsyangdi river in the Anbookhereni area of Tanahun district of Nepal on Friday.

The passengers mostly from Maharashtra’s Jalgaon district, were plying from the mountainous tourist resort of Pokhara to the Nepal capital Kathmandu when it fell 150 feet into a river valley.

This is the second major calamity to befall people from Jalgaon in a foreign land in the past three months.On June 4, four medical students from Jalgaon and one from Thane had drowned in the Volkhov River in Russia when they had gone to save a female student struggling in the water.

In the Nepal bus tragedy, the SDMA, Maharashtra Ministers Girish Mahajan and Anil Patil are also coordinating the operations to bring back the survivors and bodies.

-IANS