At least 12 passengers died and 27 were injured when a bus fell into a gorge on the old Mumbai-Pune highway in the Raigad district of Maharashtra in the wee hours of Saturday morning.
The bus was carrying about 40-45 people and most of the passengers were members of a music troupe aged between 18-25 years, a senior police official said.
Maharashtra state chief Eknath Shinde expressed his grief over the accident, and announced half a million rupee compensation to the families of the deceased. Shinde also said that the state government would bear the cost of treating the injured.
"The local administration is engaged in relief work. I express my condolences to the families of the deceased and wish the injured a speedy recovery," Federal Home Minister Amit Shah tweeted in Hindi.