Eight people were killed and at least 15 others injured when a minibus carrying pilgrims from Bhopal veered off the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway and plunged into a deep drain in Rajasthan’s Kota district early Saturday, police and hospital officials said.
The tempo traveller left Madhya Pradesh on Friday evening bound for the Khatu Shyam temple in Sikar. Kota Superintendent of Police Sujit Shankar said the group was on a four-day tour when the vehicle left the carriageway around 6 a.m. near pole number 384, under Simliya police station limits.
Rescue hampered by mud and water in the drain
Simliya station house officer Nand Singh told the Times of India that roughly 23 passengers were aboard when the bus overturned into a culvert about 15 feet below the road surface. Emergency teams used cranes to lift the wreckage while wading through mud and standing water inside the drain, he said.
Eight bodies had been recovered by mid-morning, Singh said, while three ambulances ferried survivors to New Medical College Hospital and MBS Hospital in Kota. Dr Ashutosh Sharma, superintendent of the super-specialty block at NMCH, told reporters the hospital received 15 patients—seven declared dead on arrival and eight admitted for treatment, several in critical condition.
Deputy Commissioner Piyush Samaria said all critically injured patients had been moved to intensive care and that the confirmed death toll remained at eight as of late morning. IANS quoted additional superintendent Ram Kalyan Meena as saying early accounts point to the driver falling asleep on the eight-lane highway, though Rajasthan police have not announced a final cause and the inquiry continues.
Families from Betul on a temple circuit
Reports from Madhya Pradesh identified several victims as residents of Betul district who had joined relatives for the Rajasthan leg of the pilgrimage. Survivors told local media that most passengers were asleep when the bus left the road, which would align with the early-morning timing and the fatigue that long highway stretches can bring.
The Delhi-Mumbai Expressway is among India’s newest high-speed corridors, designed to cut freight and passenger times between the capital and the western coast. Saturday’s crash nonetheless highlights the risk when single vehicles leave the paved surface at speed—guardrails and drainage structures that protect the main carriageway can become deadly obstacles once a tyre crosses the line.
What investigators will examine next
Police said they are verifying identities of the dead and injured and documenting witness statements from passengers who escaped or were pulled from the wreckage. Mechanical inspection of the minibus, driver rest history, and toll or checkpoint records for the overnight run from Bhopal will likely form part of the file Rajasthan authorities send to prosecutors if negligence is established.
Union and state transport ministries have repeatedly urged operators of tourist and charter vehicles to rotate drivers on multi-state routes. Until the Kota inquiry concludes, families in Madhya Pradesh are waiting for bodies to be released and for word on relatives still in hospital hundreds of kilometres from home.