A part of a foot overbridge in east Delhi’s Laxmi Nagar collapsed late on Sunday night after it was hit by a crane that was being transported on a carriage truck. A case under negligent driving has been lodged and Neeraj, 28, the driver of the crane, has been arrested. According to police, no injuries were reported in the incident, eyewitnesses told police that three persons were sleeping on the bridge and fell when the bridge collapsed.

According to a report from the Delhi government’s public works department (PWD), the road stretch from Akshardham to the Sabhapur Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border, including Pusta Road, has already been handed over to the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI).

Police said that a case under section 279 (rash driving) and 427 (causing damage) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) was registered and offending driver identified as Neeraj Khani (28), resident of Uttar Pradesh’s Jaunpur, was arrested in the matter.

Around 12:34am, a control room call was received at Laxmi Nagar police station regarding a footover bridge collapsing on the road near Lalita Park. 

When police reached the spot, they found a trailer loaded with a crane near Akshardham Temple.

Police said when the truck was transporting the crane from the Akshardham Temple area to Burari, a part of the crane hit the foot over-bridge, causing it to collapse partially.  The crane got stuck to it briefly due to which a portion of the bridge collapsed .

“The truck dragged the collapsed portion of the over-bridge on for a few metres before coming to a halt, the officer added.

In a report, the PWD said: “It is to note that the road stretch from Akshardham to Sabhapur Delhi-UP Border, including Pusta Road, has already been handed over to NHAI by superintending engineer (East) in June 2022 for development of Delhi-Dehradun National Highway.”

Thereafter, all the maintenance and construction work on the road stretch is being taken up by the NHAI. The PWD is coordinating with the NHAI for needful action in the matter, the report stated. It said according to the NHAI project director, a heavy vehicle damaged a portion of the foot overbridge and on inspection, it was found that the road was clear for traffic movement. The Project Director of NHAI was contacted and he informed that some overdimensonal vehicle damaged the half portion of this FOB in the last night hours so this portion has been shifted by NHAI to road side. On inspection, it is found that the road is clear for movement of traffic,” said official said. No immediate reaction was available from the NHAI.

Meanwhile, Delhi BJP President Virendra Sachdeva has expressed concern over the collapse of a large section of foot over bridge at Laxmi Nagar.

Sachdeva said that this foot overbridge had a very high usage and I thank God that the Laxmi Nagar foot overbridge collapsed late at night or else it would have proved a fatal accident. The BJP leader further accused the Arvind Kejriwal government for failing to do regular maintenance of its capital assets.  Meanwhile, Leader of Opposition in Delhi Assembly, Ramvir Singh Bidhuri said the Kejriwal government should come out with a white paper on the status of flyovers, skywalks and foot over bridge in Delhi.