At least 12 passengers were killed and four others seriously injured when a bus bound for Guwahati plunged into a river after crashing off a bridge on the busy National High Way 37 at Patgaon near Sonapur, about 40 kilometre east of Guwahati.
According to the police, the accident occurred at around 4.20 am on Sunday morning. The night bus was on its way to Guwahati from Silapathar in Lakhimpur district.
Rescue teams of the Rapid Action Team of the Border Security Force have recovered 12 bodies from the ill-fated bus, which was completely mangled due to its fall into the river from a height of over 25 feet.
Amol Das, the caretaker of the bus, and two other passengers were rescued by a group of local youth. All of them had suffered serious injuries and were rushed to the Guwahati Medical College Hospital.
Senior police and district administration officials, led by Kamrup Deputy Commissioner Protik Hazela, were overseeing the rescue operation at the incident site.
Six of the deceased passengers were identified as Sunit Ranjan Ghose, N Chakraborty, Uttam Jain, Bikash Baishya, J Saikia and R Tai.
The stretch of the National Highway 37, which is being converted to a four-lane road as a part of the East West Corridor, is in a very bad shape because of the on-going construction work and virtually zero maintenance of the existing two-lane road.
