NAGPUR: Bodies of four members of a Delhi-based family hailing from Nagpur, who were killed in a cable car accident in Kashmir yesterday, have been brought to the city this evening.
Jayant Andraskar (42), his wife Manisha (38), their daughters Anagha (4) and Janhvi (7), and three tourist guides were killed when a cable car came crashing down after a ropeway snapped midair in the ski-resort of Gulmarg.
Their bodies were brought to Nagpur around 5.15 pm in a Jet Airways flight. Their last rites will be performed late this evening.
The Andraskar family hailed from Nagpur, but had shifted to the national capital seven years ago after Jayant started working in the Directorate of Technical Education there.
His wife was a homemaker. One of their daughters was a student of class I, while the other was in playschool.
With the news of their death, a pall of gloom descended on Old Subhedar layout area here, where his family members, including his parents and siblings, live.
Jayant's brother-in-law Saurabh Wandhare told PTI that they were supposed to come to Nagpur on June 29 to attend his (Jayant's) mother-in-law's death anniversary.
"Jayant and his family members were on a vacation in Nagpur between May 12 and June 6 and they also attended my marriage last month," he said.
One of the neighbours remembers Jayant as a good and humble person.
"He was very respectful towards others," he said.
Sachin, one of Jayant's cousins, said, "Before joining the Directorate of Technical Education in Delhi seven years back, Jayant had taught in an engineering college in Nagpur and had also worked in Nagpur Improvement Trust."
Assistant professor Mahendra Umre, who had worked with Jayant when he was teaching in the engineering college, said, "He was a very hardworking and ambitious person with a lot of technical knowledge. His untimely demise is saddening."
The Andraskars, who lived in Shalimar Bagh in northwest Delhi, had gone to Kashmir for holidaying on June 22.
The cable car accident occurred after a tree, uprooted by strong winds, fell on the ropeway of Gulmarg Gondola severing the lines and plummeting the cable car to the ground, a police official had said.