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Rescue and relief works underway after a Delhi-bound bus skidded off the six-lane Yamuna Expressway and fell into a large drain near Agra on Monday. (PTI)[/caption]
Agra (UP), July 8 (PTI): A two-tiered 'sleeper bus' on its way from Lucknow to Delhi skidded off the Yamuna Expressway and plunged about 20 feet into a drain in the early hours of Monday, killing 29 people and injuring 18, officials said.
The accident took place at 4.30 am in Etmadpur, about 200 km from Delhi, when the Uttar Pradesh Roadways bus dashed against the safety railing at high speed and hurtled down into the overflowing drain, they said.
Screams of passengers trapped inside the bus could be heard in the still of the pre-dawn darkness. As news of the tragedy spread, people from villages nearby rushed to rescue the survivors, many who were deep in sleep when the accident occurred, eyewitnesses said.
The injured were rushed to different hospitals, including a private health facility, in the district, the officials said.
The operation to pull out the mangled remains of the bus -- the roof was ripped off when it fell from the bridge -- took several hours, with two excavators and a crane being deployed.
"One sleeper coach passenger bus travelling from Lucknow to Delhi met with an accident on Yamuna Expressway," the Uttar Pradesh Police said on Twitter.
The 'Janrath Bus' of the Uttar Pradesh Roadways' Awadh Depot (Lucknow) was going from Lucknow to the national capital's Anand Vihar ISBT, officials said. The sleeper bus has two decks, the lower one for those sitting and the one above with berths that let passengers stretch out.
Police in Agra released a list of 19 of those killed.
They are Siddharth Dubey, Satya Prakash Sharma, Dhreeraj Pandey, Anvesh Awasthi, Satya Prakash Tiwari, Aditya Kashyap, Premchandra, Vijay Bahadur Singh, Huzur Alam, Prayagu Mishra, Deepak Singh, Dhirendra Pratap Singh, Ankush Srivastava, Akash Srivastava, E Ahmad, Amit Kumar, Deepak Kumar and a roadways employee whose name was not mentioned.
Ten other deceased have not been identified.
Accidents are not uncommon on the high speed 165-km six-lane expressway, connecting Noida on Delhi's outskirts with Agra in Uttar Pradesh. Road safety experts have warned of the dangers of over speeding on the wide expressway, especially in early morning hours and at night.
As details came in of yet another accident on the high speed highway, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi were among the many who condoled the deaths and prayed for the speedy recovery of those injured.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath constituted a committee to go into the reasons behind the accident and submit its report early, Additional Chief Secretary, Information, Awanish Awasthi said.
Uttar Pradesh Roadways will pay an ex-gratia amount of INR 5 lakh to the next of kin of the deceased, officials said.
The chief minister expressed his condolences and asked the Agra district magistrate and senior superintendent of police to ensure the injured get proper medical treatment, they said.
He sent his deputy Dinesh Sharma and Transport Minister Swatantra Dev Singh to the accident site by air.
The committee, comprising the transport commissioner, the Agra divisional commissioner and an inspector general of police, will investigate the incident in 24 hours, the chief minister directed.
