BHUBANESWAR: A 73-year-old woman from Bangladesh died and 14 others sustained injuries after a tourist bus carrying over 60 Bangladeshi nationals overturned into a roadside pit near Uttara Square within Pipili police limits in the early hours of Saturday. The group was en route to offer prayers at the Shree Jagannath Temple in Puri.
The mishap occurred around 2:05 am. The victim, identified as Noni Bala Nath, was declared “received dead” by doctors at Capital Hospital in Bhubaneswar. One of the injured was shifted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and is said to be out of danger, police said.
Though the Motor Vehicle Inspector (MVI) of the Transport Department is investigating the cause of the accident, police sources suspect the driver may have dozed off at the wheel, leading to the bus falling into a roadside pit.
“The driver of the bus is on the run after the accident. A case was registered and efforts are on to nab him,” said Pipili police station IIC, Soumendu Tripathy.
Transport Minister Bibhuti Bhushan Jena expressed grief over the incident and instructed officials to extend all necessary assistance to the injured tourists.
While Puri Regional Transport Officer Rajesh Kumar Mohapatra visited the site to monitor the rescue operations, Bhubaneswar RTO-I Bikash Choudhury met the injured passengers at Capital Hospital.
So far, 13 passengers have been discharged from the hospital. The State Transport Authority (STA) said Bikash Choudhury has been directed to arrange a special bus to ferry the tourists to Puri.
Police confirmed that the Bangladeshi nationals had arrived in West Bengal with valid passports and visas. Before heading to Puri, they had offered prayers at the Khirachora Gopinatha temple in Balasore.