NDRF rescues all bus passengers stuck in flood water near Bhavnagar in over 2 hours long operation

September 26, 2024

Bhavnagar:  Te 6th battalion of National Disaster Response Force(NDRF) conducted succesfull Flood Water Rescue(FWR) operation in Bhavnagar district and rescued all 29 person. The operation was conducted during 1 am to 3 am in which 2 passengers were rescued. The other 27 passengers had been taken out via truck. Out of total 29 persons rescued, 27 were female wile 10 were male. The operation was declared closed at 3.20 am. NDRF team which conducted operation was halting at Amreli district. On call of the State government, it left Amreli at 9 pm and reached the incident site at 12.40 am. The rescued persons were taken to Bhavnagar in a bus and water, food, medical attention and halt etc were provided to them by the administration.

27 passengers, a driver and cleaner – in total 29 persons in a private luxury bus were stuck in floodwaters over a causeway near Koliyak village in rural Bhavnagar district in the evening. The passengers are pilgrims from the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu.  The bus was stuck on a causeway that was overtopping with floodwaters in the evening due to heavy rains. In an attempt to rescue the passengers, 8 jawans of the fire brigade were sent in a truck. Eventually, the passengers/driver/cleaner were shifted to this open truck from the bus. However, due to the overtopping of floodwaters, it was risky to move the truck. The truck could be seen leaning on one side and stuck in flood water.

The administration was then waiting for the floodwaters to recede but the efforts were also on for rescue. The truck which was sent for rescue was also carrying life jackets, ropes, a ladder and other items. The passengers were taken out of the bus from the rear side emergency exit window, using ladder. However eventually, the truck itself started leaning in flowing flood water of Maleshri river and it was stuck there, with passengers in it.


The district collector, police officials, Municipal Commissioner of Bhavnagar, MLA and former minister, former Gujarat BJP chief Jitu Vaghani among others were on the spot to monitor and guide the rescue operation. The district collector informed that the driver was from other State and therefore he couldn’t take judgement of risk involved while crossing the causeway here during overtopping of flood waters. The district collector further said that the first priority of administration was to rescue the people and take them to safe place.

The administration later readied another truck – a dumper truck – with lot of sand, ladder and expert swimmers in it for rescue mission. But it couldn’t proceed further due to unexpected high flow of flood water. It was called back after it passed some distance. The operation was on to rescue 29 passengers/driver/cleaner and 8 fire brigade jawans. NDRF team was called to join the rescue operation.

All those stuck in flood were rescued finally by NDRF. Post 3 am the truck took reverse and all those stuck in flood stepped down from it.
DeshGujarat

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