On the night of Ashar 28, 2081 B.S., at around 3 AM, two night buses plunged into the Trishuli River from a location called Simaltal on the Narayanghat-Muglin road section. Out of the 65 passengers on board, only 3 managed to swim to safety, but the remaining 62 passengers, along with both buses, disappeared into the Trishuli River. A few days later, an investigation into this incident began. Upon detailed analysis of the investigation report, it appears that this was not merely an accident, but rather a silent murder orchestrated by various agencies of the Nepalese government. What exactly caused both buses, heading towards their respective destinations, to plunge into the Trishuli River and vanish? Let's delve into the investigation report and, using my civil engineering background, attempt to uncover the depths of this incident in today's episode of In-Depth Story. On the evening of July 12, a Thursday, a Ganapati Deluxe bus departs from Kalanki, Kathmandu, heading towards Gaur, Rautahat. There are 27 passengers on board, with 5 boarding from Jorpati and 22 from Kalanki. As the bus proceeds from Kalanki, more passengers board at Thankot, Naubise, and Malekhu, bringing the total number of passengers to 38 by the time it reaches Muglin. The bus continues its journey towards Narayanghat. On the same evening, another bus from Angel Yatayat departs from Birgunj with 23 passengers, heading towards Kathmandu. Along the way, 4 more passengers board the bus at Simara, Hetauda, and Chitwan, bringing the total number of passengers to 27 as the bus reaches Narayanghat. This bus continues its journey towards Muglin. Now, the Ganapati Deluxe bus with 38 passengers and the Anjel Yatayat bus with 27 passengers are on their respective journeys, carrying a total of 65 passengers. Around 3:30 AM, both buses meet at a place called Simaltal in Chitwan. Suddenly, a massive landslide, carrying debris, hits the area, causing both buses to plunge into the Trishuli River. The Trishuli River, which might as well be Nepal's Bermuda Triangle, swallows both buses in an instant. Though both buses sink, 3 passengers manage to survive by swimming to safety. One of the survivors, Nandan Das, recounts his experience of being submerged for 5 to 7 minutes before the current lifted him, allowing him to swim to the shore. He shares his story: "The bus was running smoothly when suddenly something, maybe a landslide, came down from above. It wasn’t an accident; the bus toppled over in an instant and went underwater. I was submerged for five to seven minutes, and then the current lifted me. I didn’t know how to swim well, but somehow, I managed to swim to the shore and then crawled up the cliff to the road." Another survivor, Jageshwar Yadav, was returning home after receiving medical treatment in Kathmandu. He was traveling with his son, daughter, grandson, and granddaughter, a total of 5 family members. Although he survived by swimming to safety, the Trishuli River claimed the lives of his four other family members. Another survivor, Parshu Ram Shah, was traveling with his parents and sister. Though he somehow managed to survive by swimming to safety, his parents and sisters are still missing. "That night, at around 10 or 11 PM, we had dinner at Galchhi. After dinner, the bus resumed its journey, and about one or two hours after crossing Muglin, it started raining. The bus stopped, the windows were closed, and the lights were turned off. Shortly after that, there was a sound as if the bus had hit something, and moments later, the bus plunged into the Trishuli River." These are the accounts of the survivors. They have no idea how the incident happened. The three survivors were taken to Chitwan for treatment. In such traumatic accidents, it is recommended that patients receive treatment at a Level 1 trauma center. To be recognized as a trauma center, the facility must provide 24-hour emergency services, have a team of critical care specialists, neurosurgeons, orthopedic surgeons, vascular surgeons, general surgeons, anesthetists, pediatric surgeons, eye surgeons, and a blood bank, among other essential services. In Nepal, there are fewer than 10 true trauma centers that provide these services 24/7, and Birat Medical College and Teaching Hospital in Biratnagar is one of them. ~Ad~ Now, the three survivors who swam to safety did not actually see or could not explain exactly what caused the bus to fall into the river. So, what exactly happened? A driver named Jiwan Sunar, who was driving a passenger bus from Sindhuli to Pokhara via Bardibas, It was raining heavily, but he continued driving until he reached a place called Simaltal on the Narayanghat-Muglin road section, where he saw the event unfold before his eyes. "When I arrived there, mud and debris were coming down from above. The road was already covered with mud. At that moment, two buses were trying to cross each other. I backed up my bus and stopped. The mud and debris kept increasing. I was startled. The buses were attempting to pass each other, but the mud on the road was disturbing them. The gap between the two buses was very narrow, and it looked like they were getting closer to each other. Suddenly, the bus coming from Kathmandu fell, and immediately after that, the bus going to Kathmandu also fell. It made a sound like a stone being thrown into a pond, but nothing was visible in the river. I immediately turned off my engine and called 100." This incident occurred around 3:30 AM. After he informed the police by calling 100, both the Nepal Police and the Armed Police Force teams arrived at the scene by 4 AM. The landslide debris was cleared by 6:30 AM, and the road was reopened. Only then, about five hours after the incident, did the search and rescue operation begin at 8:30 AM. During the search operation, initially, only a window curtain from the bus and a pair of trousers belonging to a 10-year-old child were found on the banks of the Trishuli River. Based on the location where the bus fell and where the trousers were discovered, a team of divers from the Nepalese Army and the Armed Police Force was deployed to search the area. They started by sending a camera into the water to investigate. This camera, tied to a pole, could only provide visibility up to 20 meters underwater. While the search was ongoing around the accident site using this camera, about 50 kilometers downstream from the incident site, at a place called Golaghat where the Rapti and Narayani rivers meet, the body of one of the bus passengers was found. Finding a body 50 kilometers downstream, seven hours after the accident, confirmed two things: - First, the rescue operation was significantly delayed. - Second, the Trishuli River’s current was extremely strong, having already carried the passengers far away. While the search for the bus and passengers was underway, a meeting of the House of Representatives was also being held that day. You might think the meeting was convened to discuss the tragic accident, but that’s not how things work in Nepal. That day, Prachanda’s government was on the verge of collapsing, and he was seeking a vote of confidence in the parliament for the last time. Prime Minister Prachanda, the then-Home Minister Rabi Lamichhane, and the would-be Home Minister Ramesh Lekhak were all fiercely shouting and making others laugh from the rostrum, each trying to position themselves at the center of attention. Listening to their speeches, it seemed as though they were unaware of the major accident that had occurred earlier that morning—or perhaps they knew but didn’t care. While the entire country was shocked by the morning’s tragedy, the leaders were deeply engrossed in their own political games. Perhaps, to them, this was just another accident that would soon be forgotten. Or maybe if it had been a plane crash, they would have gone to see it, but who cares about a road accident, right? Indeed, road accidents have become normalized in Nepal. Every day, out of those who leave their homes in the morning, seven people will die in road accidents. They won’t return home. According to the statistics of the Nepal Police for the fiscal year 2080/81, an average of 97 road accidents occur every day, resulting in 88 injuries and 7 deaths. When discussing the Narayanghat-Muglin road section, geographically, it is one of the most accident-prone areas. This 36-kilometer-long road, which connects eastern and western Nepal to the capital, Kathmandu, sees an average of 10,097 vehicles daily, according to recent statistics. The Muglin-Narayanghat road section, which has been in operation since 2039 BS, runs along the banks of the Trishuli River, with the river on one side of the road and high hills on the other. During the monsoon season, landslides frequently block this road multiple times each year. Since 2075/76, this road section has witnessed 379 accidents, resulting in 117 deaths and 978 injuries. So, how did this accident happen where two buses were swept away at Simtal? According to the driver, there was a landslide with debris from above. But how did this debris come down? Let’s take a look at the location where this incident occurred. The aerial view of this place looks like this. But do you know what this place looked like 12 years ago? Umm, it looked like this. There was an active landslide here. The ground was subsiding, and landslides were occurring. In a place where there’s an active landslide, there’s always a chance of ground subsidence and landslides happening in the future. Despite this active landslide, a road was being constructed here a few years ago. A rural road, about 2 kilometers long, was being built on the Kadam River side. This road connects the lower Dumbrebeshi and upper Dumbre villages. Every year, they have been gradually expanding this road. In the last fiscal year, a budget of Rs. 500,000 was allocated by the metropolitan municipality for road construction. And of course, heavy machinery like bulldozers was used in the construction. As a result, the old landslide became active again. Initially, the ground started subsiding, or in engineering terms, this is called a mass settlement failure. During the investigation, it was found that the ground had settled between 70 cm and 2.3 meters. When there’s heavy rainfall, this subsided ground leads to a landslide. And this isn’t the only area with such issues. Random rural roads have been constructed above the Narayanghat-Muglin road. Let me remind you again that over 10,000 vehicles pass through this road every day. Yet, the local government is allowing the construction of rural roads without any engineering study. It’s not that rural roads aren’t necessary. Roads should reach every village. But constructing rural roads above a highway that sees over 10,000 vehicles daily, without any study or Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), should not be allowed. Nowadays, when cutting roads into hills, the cut-and-fill approach should be used. However, in this case, during the construction of the rural road, the cut-and-fill approach wasn’t used, and all the excavated soil was thrown onto the slope. As a result, such roads often experience landslides during heavy rainfall. Above the accident site is the Sindure Khola stream. A culvert was constructed under the road to divert the stream's water. But on the 28th of Asar, the day of the accident, the heavy rainfall brought down debris from above, which clogged the culvert. The locals had noticed this, but unfortunately, they didn’t inform the relevant authorities, or perhaps they didn’t realize that this could lead to a major disaster. When looking at this situation, it appears that during the recent construction of roads in the hilly area above Simaltal, the soil excavated during the process was carelessly dumped along the roadside slopes. When the heavy monsoon rains came, this soil was washed down along with the debris through the Sindure Khola stream. The check dams and gabion walls that had been built in the stream a few years ago couldn’t withstand the pressure, and the large amount of debris, mud, and rocks swept down, pushing two vehicles crossing the road into the Trishuli River. From all this, it seems that two parties made significant mistakes. One, Bharatpur Metropolitan City, by issuing permission and allocating a budget for road construction, ignored the environmental aspect. And the second is the Road Division Office in Bharatpur, which should have regularly cleaned the culverts and catch pits but failed to do so. If they had been cleaned regularly, they would have noticed the accumulation of debris and realized that it could slide down onto the road at any time. Another major mistake is evident in the fact that even at 11:30 PM, when the accident occurred, debris had already piled up at that very spot, where vehicles had been halted for two hours while the debris was being cleared. But the biggest mistake was that while the debris was removed, no effort was made to identify its source. By focusing only on an immediate solution, potential future accidents were overlooked. Another problem in Nepal is that there is no integrated information system related to road safety. If the Nepalese government had established such an agency, drivers would have been informed about the condition of the roads in various areas. Due to the mistakes and negligence of various agencies, 62 people lost their lives in this accident. During the search operations, 25 bodies were found as far as 107 kilometers downstream, but only 19 of these bodies were confirmed to be passengers from the two buses involved in the accident. It’s like when we used to play cricket as kids, and after losing the ball, we’d sometimes find balls that had been lost earlier. Now, in the river, it’s just like that— bodies from previous accidents are being found too. And the saddest part of this is the stark difference between a bus accident and a plane accident. Besides the difference in public attention, another major difference is that the airlines have the complete details of all the passengers aboard a plane. But on a bus, many passengers travel without a ticket. This means that the reported number of 65 passengers could be incorrect. Those who knew the exact number of passengers on that bus are all gone now. A few days ago, I saw a Facebook post where someone wrote about a friend who had left for a trip, saying he was missing and wondering if had had been on that bus without a ticket and ended up in the accident. This is a common occurrence on the buses that ply that route— many passengers board mid-journey or without a ticket, which casts doubt on the number of 62 victims reported. In Nepal, accidents happen repeatedly, and innocent lives are lost time and time again. But we just say, "This is how Nepal's geography is," or "This is what happens in a land cursed by the Sati," or "This is what happens when Dolakha Bhimsen sweats." In this incident, we cannot blame the driver, we cannot blame the passengers, and we cannot even blame nature. Because looking at everything, it’s clear that Bharatpur Metropolitan City and the Road Division Office in Bharatpur are the ones responsible. After this incident, the investigation committee submitted a report to Home Minister Ramesh Lekhak, outlining nine actions that need to be implemented immediately to prevent such accidents in the future. However, since the submission of that report, two more major accidents have occurred. Perhaps you should give him a call and remind him to take a look at that report again. You must have his phone number from our previous video. If not, here it is—save it. Call him, text him, or WhatsApp him. As for the Prime Minister, there's no point even talking about him— he’s too busy with all the nonsense. People even chased him in Tundikhel. By the way, does anyone know how far along his promised train has come? If there was a train, maybe these type of accidents won't exist.