The death toll in the bus accident at Marpak of Dhading district has climbed to 19, after an injured passenger succumbed to injuries during treatment at Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital (TUTH) in Kathmandu.

Eighteen people died on the spot when a passenger bus met with an accident at Labangphedi of Marpak on Tuesday, Dhading District Police Chief Sharad Kumar Khatri said.

Dr Pratap Narayan Sah at TUTH’s emergency confrimed the death of one passenger at the hospital.

The injured passengers were airlifted to Kathmandu by two helicopters for treatment.

The ill-fated passenger bus (Na 4 Kha 3318) that left from Milantol of Dhadingbesi, the district headquarters, carrying 35 passengers was heading for Kingtangphedi met with an accident at a steep road in Marpak-6, Police Inspector Bhim Prasad Bhattarai said. The bus could have added additional passengers on the way,  he added.

According to the ticket counter, most of the passengers in the bus were earthquake survivors from Satyadevi and Ri VDCs of the district. They were heading to receive the first installment of Rs 50,000 to be distributed to the earthquake surviors.  The road is mostly used by the people from northern VDCs of the district including Ri, Lapa, Satyadevi, Tipling, Sertung, and Jharlang.

Additional 15 people were airlifted by Nepal Army helicopter at 2 pm, Nepal Army’s Devidutta Battalion informed.

The identity of the deceased has not been established as none of the passengers have written their name in their tickets.

The accident site is 32 km away from the district headquarters. The bus had not received the permit to operate in the route. Police believe the accident could have occurred due to lack of maintenance of the road damaged by recent spell of rains.

Photos: Keshav Thapa