Police have begun excavation work after a bus was found buried in the Trishuli River. Eighteen months ago, two passenger buses were swept into the river by a landslide at Simaltal along the Muglin–Narayangadh road section in Chitwan and had remained missing since then.
On Sunday morning, local resident Roshan Bhujel spotted a bus buried along the riverbank while fishing and informed the police. Following the tip-off, a team comprising police from Chitwan, Tanahun, and the disaster management unit based in Kurintar carried out excavation work throughout the day to verify whether the remains belong to one of the buses that went missing in the incident.
According to Chitwan Police spokesperson Rabindra Khanal, parts of the front driver-side wheel disc and some metal sheets have been recovered so far. He said investigations are ongoing to confirm whether the buried bus is the same one that was swept away by the landslide last year. The remains were found buried in sand on the riverbank about 300 meters downstream from the accident site, and more than 30 police personnel have been deployed for the recovery operation.
The accident occurred at around 3:00 am on Asar 28, 2081 (July 12, 2024), when a mudslide struck Simaltal in Bharatpur Metropolitan City–29. An Angel Deluxe bus (Bagmati Province 03-006 Kha 1516) traveling from Birgunj to Kathmandu and a Ganapati Deluxe bus (Bagmati Province 03-001 Kha 2495) heading from Kathmandu to Gaur were swept into the Trishuli River.
Out of the 65 passengers on the two buses, three were rescued alive, while the bodies of 11 people were recovered. The remaining 51 passengers are still missing. At the time, extensive search operations were conducted, including the deployment of divers brought in from India, but the buses and most of the passengers could not be located.
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