A bridge across the Savitri river on the Mumbai-Goa highway collapsed on the Tuesday (2/8/2016) night. Approximately a dozen vehicles have fallen into the river. Among them ,two buses with full of passengers were also there.

Our team will immediately carry out rescue operations as soon as it reaches-NDRF DG OP Singh on Maha bridge collapse pic.twitter.com/urK8GdG1JW

— ANI (@ANI_news) August 3, 2016

Immediately after the occurrence of this incident, District administration and Police were informed about the bridge collapse. Very soon, Police rushed to the spot through another new bridge and restored the traffic over there. National Disaster Response Force(NDRF) sent three teams comprising of 80 personnel to the spot. Rescue operations were undertaken by the divers of NDRF team.

Heavy rains became the obstacle for rescue operations. In this 24 hours rescue team were unable to find the vehicles and the people. There was no actual count of the passengers. They were unaware of whether people were surviving or dead.The Water level in the Savitri river got increased by many times due to heavy rains in the monsoon season.

Police department diverted the traffic from this bridge to a new bridge which was nearby. The bridge which was collapsed was about 5km from the town of Mahad in the Raigad district of Maharashtra. According to the reports, this incident took place around 11:30PM on Tuesday.

Maharashtra Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis responded to the incident immediately and tweeted as follows:

Spoke to Raigad SP & Collector about bridge collapse on Mumbai-Goa highway.
Administration has rushed to spot for rescue&immediate measures.

— Devendra Fadnavis (@Dev_Fadnavis) August 2, 2016

There were 2 parallel bridges : one is a new bridge and one constructed during the British era.
The old one got collapsed.

— Devendra Fadnavis (@Dev_Fadnavis) August 2, 2016

The primary reason seems to be the high pressure caused due to flooding of river Savitri due to heavy rains in catchment of Mahabaleshwar.

— Devendra Fadnavis (@Dev_Fadnavis) August 2, 2016

There is no confirmed assessment about casualties since the area is very dark.
Administration will ensure speedy rescue & relief operations.

— Devendra Fadnavis (@Dev_Fadnavis) August 2, 2016