One of the two buses that went missing after a massive landslide plunged them into the Trishuli river at Simaltal in ward 29 of Bharatpur Metropolitan City, Chitwan, around a year and a half ago has been finally located. Authorities have confirmed that the recovered wreckage is of the Ganapati Deluxe bus that went missing after the tragic incident.

Excavation work began on Sunday morning after bus remnants were detected in the riverbed. On the third day of continuous digging, a team from the Armed Police Force (APF) confirmed that the wreckage belonged to the Ganapati Deluxe bus. APF Head Constable Lalit Bahadur Kamcha, who was deployed in the search operation, said that a section bearing the words “Ganapati Deluxe” was found during excavation, conclusively identifying the vehicle. Excavation work is still underway, he added.

Two buses carrying more than 60 passengers were hit by a landslide on the Narayanghat-Mugling road section in the wee hours of July 12, 2024 and the buses were swept away by the Trishuli river. Three of the passengers managed to get outside and swim to safety.

Ganesh Aryal, Chief District Officer of Chitwan, said that the search operation would be continued with greater intensity after the bus had been identified. The bus has been recovered in Dondrangbesi in ward 5 of Anbukhaireni Rural Municipality in Tanahun.

Two passenger buses had been swept away by a landslide at Simaltal, about 22 kilometres northeast of Narayanghat. The Ganapati Yatayat bus travelling from Kathmandu to Gaur, and the Angel Deluxe bus heading from Birgunj to Kathmandu, were both dragged into the swollen Trishuli river.

There are conflicting reports on the total number of passengers in the buses. Issuing a statement on July 14, 2024, the District Administration Office in Chitwan said that there were 65 passengers in the buses; three of them survived by swimming.

The government had formed a five-member task force headed by Joint Secretary Chhabi Rijal of the Ministry of Home Affairs to investigate the incident. The task force submitted its report to the then home minister, Ramesh Lekhak, on August 6. The task force concluded that the accumulation of debris and gravel from the construction of a rural road above the Narayanghat-Mugling road triggered the landslide that swept away the buses following heavy rainfall.

However, the task force’s report states that there were a total of 62 passengers—36 passengers on Gaur-bound bus and 26 on the bus heading to Kathmandu from Birgunj. Among them, three passengers on the Gaur-bound bus survived, says the report.

The task force report states that Bharatpur Metropolitan City neglected environmental factors during the construction of the rural road. Further, the report blamed the Bharatpur Division Road Office for failing to clear landslide debris from blocked culverts.

A massive search operation involving around 500 security personnel, including divers from the Nepal Army and Armed Police Force, water drones equipped with sonar technology and Nepal Police teams, was launched at the time. But the rescuers failed to detect the missing buses.

A 12-member Indian search and rescue had also come to Nepal to search for two buses and their passengers missing in the Simaltal accident but returned home empty-handed on July 29. Rescuers from India’s National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) joined the Nepali rescue teams of the Nepal Army, Nepal Police and Armed Police Force on July 21, 2024 and worked for a week.