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Uttarakhand bus tragedy jolts Ganjam

BERHAMPUR: Festivities marking Durga puja received a jolt in Ganjam district on Thursady evening with the news of the death 42 pilgrims from the district in a bus accident in Uttarakhand.

With the news being flashed on television channels, travel agencies who conduct pilgrimage tours started receiving frantic phone calls. The phone calls subsided only after the names of the deceased persons were announced on the channels.

Till 7.30 p.m., neither the administration nor the police had any information regarding the deaths. Most of the victims were from Berhampur, Kavisuryanagar, Polasara and Kodala areas of Ganjam district. Six persons from the city, five from Kavisuryanagar, two from Polasara had been identified to be among the dead so far. They were all persons above 50 years of age on their pilgrimage that coincided with Mahalaya.

Gokulananada Mishra of Sai Chardham Travels of the city informed that the victims were part of conducted tours that commence from the district before Mahalaya. According to him, the victims may not be of a single group. From September 15 to 30 some seven buses had left from Ganjam district on north India tour. Four of them started from Polasara and Bileijhuri areas, one each from Sikula and Sankula. One bus that left from the city retuned safely a few days ago. These buses do not travel uphill from Hardwar. From there, interested pilgrims hire local buses to travel to Rishikesh or Badrinath.

The bus involved in the accident was rented by pilgrims from Orissa. It fell into the Alaknanda near Bishnuprayag, killing 42 of 44 passengers. The irony was that most of these trips were not registered tours.

Family members of victims as well as others who were yet to return are making frantic efforts to contact travel agency owners of the city to get information of their relatives through their contacts in Uttarakhand.

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