Assam announces compensation after Kaziranga road accident

GUWAHATI: Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Saturday announced compensation of Rs 9 lakh for each family of the 26 people killed in a road accident near Kaziranga, and said the state government would support those affected.

Sarma visited the crash site in the Rongajaan area of Golaghat district to review the situation and meet officials managing the response. In a post on X, he called the incident “heartbreaking” and expressed condolences to families who had lost loved ones.

“Each bereaved family will receive Rs 9 lakh in compensation,” Sarma said, adding that no payment could make up for the loss, particularly for households that had lost more than one member. He said the government would ensure families did not face the aftermath alone.

The chief minister said he would personally visit the home of every bereaved family within two to three days. Additional doctors had been sent from Guwahati and other hospitals to speed up postmortems and provide care to injured people, he said. Sarma added that a detailed investigation was underway to establish the cause of the collision.

He also said the government would restore strict enforcement of traffic rules. Sarma acknowledged that some traffic decisions had been relaxed at a Nalbari Cabinet meeting following political pressure, and said the administration should not have yielded.

“We will bring back strict traffic rules and enforce them firmly, because people’s lives come first,” he said.

The crash occurred on Friday when a passenger vehicle and a container truck collided head-on near Kaziranga National Park. The death toll had risen to 26 by Saturday, officials said. Twenty-four victims had been identified, while two remained unidentified.

Nineteen injured people were initially taken to Jorhat Medical College and Hospital. Two later died there, and one person at the hospital was still unidentified, according to officials.