Boat gets entangled in high tension electricity cable in Ganga river, 3 dozen injured

Patna: A boat carrying around 125 to 150 people collided with high tension lines while sailing the Ganga in Vaishali district, Bihar, on Saturday, injuring at least three dozen people. Approximately 15 to 20 people are reported missing.

On Saturday, the boat departed from the ghat at Kacchi Dargah in rural Patna and sailed towards the riverine area of Raghopur in Vaishali at about 8 pm. Most of the passengers were daily wagers on their way home from Mokama and Patna in the morning. In the middle of the river, the boat collided with a high tension wire, causing at least three dozen people to suffer burn injuries and many others to fall into the river and are reportedly missing.

In Patna, the Ganga river has been flowing above the danger level for several days. Over 2.74 lakh people in nine blocks of rural Patna have been affected.

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‘I was returning home after my work in Patna. The boat left Patna at 8 pm and after about half an hour it came in contact with the high tension wire. The water current was extremely high in the river because of which the incident took place,’ according to Rudal Das, a daily wager who was returning to Raghopur in the boat.

Vaishali and Patna administration reached the spot shortly after the incident and began rescue operations. In Fatuha, the injured were transported to various private hospitals. Administrations in Patna and Vaishali are unsure how many people were on the boat and how many remain missing. A number of survivors have been contacted but no exact number has been provided as to how many were on board at the time of the incident, the officials said. ‘After the incident, we have contacted 38 survivors who were on board. Some have suffered injuries and some are safe. We are getting information from the survivors but nobody is giving the correct number on how many persons were on board. NDRF is carrying out searches in the river for the missing persons,’ said Mukesh Ranjan, SDO Patna City.