aportion of the arterial majerhat bridge in south kolkata collapsed this evening causing death to one, while over a score people were injured dozens of people were believed to have been trapped under the debris and many vehicles moving along the affected portion were crushed.the collapse was a chilling reminder of the 2016 vivekanada
bridge collapse in the posta area of central kolkata in which 28 people were killed The 40-year-old bridge in the crowded alipore area suddenly caved in around4-45 pm, thepeak evening hour when commuters were returning home in buses and cars.It runs over the
majerhat railway station and connects the city centre to behala and othersouthern suburbs the police confirmed the death while fire brigade personnel engaged in the rescue work said 25 injured had been pulledout of the rubble.
the injured have been admitted to sskm and cmri hospitals, the police said. "we were sitting and talking among ourselves when we heard a thud. we ran to the spot imme diately and were shocked to find a howrah-bound mini bus from behala sakherbazar had fallern down and got caughtin the debris. scores of bus pas sengers were screaming for help, we immediately started extricating the trapped plassengers and managed to pull out seven of them the police and other rescue teams were yet to reach the spot then," said gulam mustafa, one of thelocals and an eye-witness to the collapse. some workers of the metro construction stay ing at a temporary shade on the side of the nallh where the portion had caved-in are feared to have been trapped', he said. thousands of people ravelling in the peak vening hours were inconvenienced. there was chaos all around the area. with onlookers and passersby making a beeline to the spot, the police had a trying
time in keeping them bay. City police commissioner, along with the mayor and other officials the situation. traffic from various parts of south 24 parganas and behała were diverted from diamond park area, ing at missioner, monitored the officer said movement of traffic towards south-west kolkata and South 24 parganas were being diverted from kidderpore and through port area and circular garden reach road, he said. train services in circular railway and sealdah-
budge budge line were suspended as precautionary measure followingthe collapse, eastern railwayspokesman r n mahapatra said. Train movement through Majherhat had been suspended tem porarily as a precautionary measure, he said. Train services on budge budge-sealdah section may be restored after ensuring the safety in train run ning, he said state urban develop ment and municipal affairs minister Flfirhad hakiım, who visited the spot, sai the bridge is very old. The engineers ofthe pwd, kdma and other technical
cal persons will ascertairn the cause of the collapse the rescure operation is on in full swing.we are not thinking of deploying the army at this stage". He also added that a team of disaster management group (dmg) had joined in the rescue operation and a team of forensic experts had also come to the spotto takesamples for test. kolkata port trust spokesperson said that a team of pso and 50 cisf peisonnel of kopthad been deployed to help in the rescue of the hapless people feared to have been trapped under the debris.
trinamul secretary-general and state education minister, partha chatterjee has said that a probehas been ordered into the incident.
the collapse of majer hat bridge has brought its maintenance agency pwd under the scanner with questions being raised on its sincerity in performing the task.The collapse has further brought to light a repair that was carried out on the same bridge last month sources said that the pwd engineers repaired the stretch through bitumen coating.It is being alleged that the work was com pleted very fast and had it
been done properly then the tragedy could have been avoided.In april, the pwd alipore division had invited tenders for the "surface repairing" of a 1.2 km stretch between
taratala flyover, majerhat bridge and dh road.The work included "patch repair or patch maintenance', "bituminous surfacing work with bituminous thickness less than 40 mm, "repair & rehabilitation" of any bridge and added that the "defect liability period ofthe work shall be one year from theactual completion of the work."