Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde on Saturday announced a compensation of Rs 5 lakh each to the kin of the 26 deceased in horrific bus accident on Samruddhi Mahamarg in Buldhana. He further said that the government will mull over safety measures on the newly-launched highway as several accidents have been reported recently.

Expressing his condolences, CM Shinde told News18 that the Rs 5 lakh ex-gratia will be given from the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund. He said that as soon as he got the information about the early morning accident, he contacted the collector, Buldhana’s superintendent of police and the inspector general over phone and took stock of the situation.

While giving instructions to provide help to the accident victims, the chief minister also directed officials to provide immediate medical treatment to the injured at government expense.

Buldhana SP Sunil Kadasne said that 26 bus passengers were charred to death after the vehicle caught fire on the Samruddhi Expressway. He informed that the private travels bus was on way from Nagpur to Pune, with 33 people, when it rammed a divider around 1.30 am near Sindkhedraja in Buldhana district.

Kadasne said that as per preliminary information, a bus tyre burst and the vehicle hit a pole, collided with a divider and caught fire. The remaining seven passengers have been rushed to nearby hospital and are safe, he added.

CM Shinde, who is likely to visit the accident spot, further said that the government will look into the safety measures on Samruddhi Mahamarg as many accidents were reported on the route recently.

The 80-km stretch of the Mumbai-Nagpur Expressway, also known as the Samruddhi Mahamarg, was inaugurated by CM Eknath Shinde and deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis on May 26. Officially named ‘Hindu Hrudaysamrat Balasaheb Thackeray Maharashtra Samruddhi Mahamarg’, it is a 701-km-long expressway providing seamless connectivity between Mumbai and Nagpur. The inaugurated section of the expressway is between Shirdi and Bharvir near Nashik.

On Friday itself, four people were killed in an accident involving three vehicles in Buldhana. “The tyre of a bus got punctured and was stranded in the middle of the road. The driver of another bus stopped his vehicle and was moving towards the site to help with repairs. However, a truck coming from behind hit one of the buses, which went on to hit the driver offering help,” a police official said.

“The driver died on the spot. A woman passenger of one of the buses, who was standing on the road, also died. The truck’s driver and cleaner were also killed. A case has been registered and a probe is underway,” the Malkapur police station official said.