Five Odia migrants hurt in bus mishap

Five Odia migrant workers were injured after the bus ferrying them from Gujarat’s Surat city to Odisha’s Ganjam district overturned near Karanja on Nagpur-Amravati National Highway in Maharashtra on Sunday.

All the injured, including two bus staff and three migrant workers, were admitted to the nearby Karanja hospital in Maharashtra, Raghunath Panda, a resident of Ganjam whose relatives were travelling in the bus, said.

The bus carrying around 50 Odias had left Surat on Friday evening.

Earlier, a bus ferrying Odia workers from Surat met with an accident near Andharkote at Kalinga Ghat on KandhamalGanjam border of the state on Saturday night. Two people were killed in the mishap. While one person died on the spot, the one person succumbed to his injuries at Bhanjanagar hospital.

Reports said that the vehicle narrowly escaped a major disaster as it stopped short of plunging into a 200 metre-deep valley on the other side.

Following the mishap, three fire fighting teams from Tikabali, Phiringia and G. Udaygiri were mobilised with special rescue equipment for rescue operations.

Later, state transport minister Padmanabha Behera informed that a probe would be ordered to ascertain the exact reason behind the accident.

“It seems that the mishap occurred because of the lack of enough knowledge of the drivers about driving on ghat roads and hilly regions. Directives will be issued to drivers not to drive the buses bringing Odisha returnees beyond speed limit of 40 kmph,” said the minister Behera.

Reports from Ganjam said another Gujarat bus carrying migrant workers also met with accident in same Kalingha Ghat. The bus hit a truck coming from the opposite side on the ghat road.