‘Initiatives have been made to bring foreign technology to search for missing persons’

Home Secretary Ek Narayan Aryal has said that initiatives are underway to bring technology from abroad that would enable to carry out search in murky waters of the buses and passengers that have gone missing in the Trishuli river.

The Home Secretary, who arrived here today along with high officials of security bodies to take stock of the progress of the ongoing search operation for the missing buses and their passengers swept away by a landslide into the Trishuli river, said that talks are on with the donor agencies and the embassies of several countries on bringing additional technology to aid in the search operation.

According to him, the government has mobilized 500 security personnel, including divers, along with the available technology for searching for the missing passengers. “We are also working as to how the search could be speeded up in consultation with the transport entrepreneurs also. So far five bodies have been recovered,” he said.

The Home Secretary said that the search would be intensified using the modern equipment with the receding water level in the river.

Along with Secretary Aryal, a security team comprising Inspector General of Police Basanta Kunwar will make an on-site observation of the accident site today itself.

A bus with registration number plate Bagamati Province 03-006 Kha 1516 belonging to Angel Deluxe heading towards Kathmandu from Birgunj and another bus bearing registration number plate Bagmati Province 032495 Kha 001 belonging to Ganapati Deluxe that was going towards Gaur from Kathmandu were swept away into the Trishuli river by a landslide occurred at Simaltal on the Narayangadh-Muglin road section of Bharatpur Metropolitan City-29 at 3.30 am on July 13.

So far, the bodies of only five of the 65 passengers of the two buses who went missing in the swollen river have been found.