AAs many as 20 passengers were killed and 33 others injured on Tuesday, when a State transport bus and a rickshaw plunged into an agricultural well after a collision at Dewla village in Nashik district of north Maharashtra.
The mishap occurred when the bus was heading from the powerloom town of Kalwan. One report reaching the state headquarters from the mishap site said that after a tyre burst, the bus rammed into an adjacent rickshaw and skidded, leading to both the vehicles plunging into a huge village irrigation well located next to the road.
Another report said that both the bus and rickshaw collided against each other and went down the village well, after the drivers lost control of their respective vehicles.
While seven to eight persons from the rickshaw were killed on the sport, the others killed in the mishap were from the ST bus. The officials said that in 20 persons had been killed, while 33 others injured in the mishap.
The efforts to retrieve the bodies, along with the bus and rickshaw, were going on till late in the night.
Meanwhile, the state-run Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) announced a compensation of Rs 10 lakh to the next of kin of each person killed in the mishap, while it said it would bear the entire medical expenses of those injured in the mishap.
