West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday expressed anguish over the death of five trekkers from the state in a road accident in Uttarakhand and said her government has mobilised officers to preserve the bodies and bring back the mortal remains.
Five tourists from West Bengal, including three of a family from New Garia on the southern fringes of Kolkata, died after the SUV they were travelling in fell into a gorge in Uttarakhand’s Tehri Garhwal district on Wednesday afternoon. The driver of the vehicle — a Bolero — died, too.
Distressed to know of the death of 5 Bengal tourists in a road accident near Tehri on their way to Uttarkashi (Uttarakhand), Banerjee tweeted.
Mobilised our officers here and at Delhi since last night to preserve the bodies at AIIMS Hrishikesh, fly relatives from here to Delhi and to transport them from there to Hrishikesh, to help bring back the mortal remains here, to provide all retrieval assistance, she said.
The incident happened near Kotigad on the Rishikesh-Gangotri highway when the SUV, carrying the team of trekkers from Haridwar to Kedartal-Gangotri, fell into the gorge, District Magistrate Iva Ashish Shrivastava said.
The vehicle fell into a 50-metre-deep gorge and burst into flames in which all the six occupants of the vehicle, including the driver, were charred to death.
The tourists were Madan Mohan Bhuniya, 61, wife Jhumur, 59, and their son Nilesh, 23. The family was from Srinagar in New Garia, the police said. Two other two tourists who died were Pradip Das, 47, from Naihati in the North 24-Parganas district, and Debmalya Debnath, 43, from Barrackpore in the same district.
The five, who had left Kolkata on Monday, had gone to Uttarakhand for trekking. The police said they had learnt from some bystanders that the vehicle was travelling towards Uttarkashi from Chamba when the driver lost control. The Bolero rammed into a railing before falling into the gorge. The vehicle caught fire soon after it touched the ground, making it impossible for residents of the area to rescue the tourists. By the time the tourists were brought out, all had died.
A magisterial probe has been ordered into the mishap to ascertain the cause of the mishap.
Sincere condolences and full solidarity to the families, Banerjee added.
In another incident, six tourists from Bengal died and 15 were critically injured after a tourist bus fell into a gorge at Kalinga Ghat in Ganjam district in Odisha, about 230km from Bhubaneswar, around 12.15 am on Wednesday. All the tourists were from Udaynarayanpur in Howrah. The group had left Howrah on Monday on an 11-day trip. A total of 77 people were in the sleeper bus called Sagar Samrat.
