Of its workforce of 92,000 employees, 7,623 MSRTC staffers resumed work on Tuesday, allowing the transporter to run 56 bus trips till 4 pm. But passengers remained badly hit as an accident by a private taxi that had picked passengers from an MSRTC bus stand led to five deaths in rural Akkalkot.

The accident took place around 10.30 am near Kumbharli village on the Akkalkot-Solapur highway, over 250 km from Pune. Preliminary investigations revealed that its front right side tyre burst and the vehicle turned turtle.