Rajasthan: Around 45 passengers were injured when a private bus rammed into two trucks, which had already collided with each other on the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway in Rajasthan's Dausa district on Thursday (January 2), police said.
Nangal-Rajawatan DSP Charul Gupta said that a bus of devotees was going from Ujjain to Delhi when the accident occurred due to dense fog. The DSP said around 45 passengers in the bus were injured and more than 20 were admitted to Dausa District Hospital.
The front part of the bus was badly damaged in the accident, police said. Additional doctors and staff were deployed on the instructions of District Hospital Chief Medical Officer Dr Deepak Sharma following information that a large number of people were injured.
Earlier on December 5, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said four contractors have been held responsible for deficiencies detected in the construction of the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway and strict action will be taken against them.
"After noting the deficiencies, we roped in experts from IIT-Kharagpur and IIT-Gandhinagar. Initial findings of the report show there are deficiencies in its construction," the Union transport minister said during Question Hour in the Lok Sabha.
Gadkari ruled out any wrongdoing in the construction material used in the expressway.
"It is not an issue about the quality of construction material. There has been no wrongdoing in it. There is a 10-year defect liability period of the highway and the contractors will be held liable," he said.
The minister said fixing the accountability of officials and suspending the defaulters, retiring the redundant staff and blacklisting contractors will be part of his strategy.
"We have issued notices to four contractors and will blacklist them. Strict action will be taken. Action will also be taken against officials concerned," he said.
Noting the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway is the country's longest such road and was constructed in the shortest time, Gadkari said, "The expressway was built at a cost of Rs 1 lakh crore. It has reduced the distance between Delhi and Mumbai by 200 km. The travel time between the two cities has now reduced to 12 hours."