At least one person died and 26 others injured, some of them grievously, and five others feared trapped in the debris of the collapsed Kolkata flyover.
Popularly known as Majherhat Bridge that flies over a suburban railway track connecting Sealdah to Budge Budge caved in taking along with it a loaded minibus, 5 cars, several two-wheelers and some cycles on Tuesday evening.
A tin-shed housing at least 70 labourers working at theunder-construction Joka-BBD Bag Metro Railways, which runs a few feet from the caved bridge, was largely empty with only about 7 night staffers sleeping underneath it, said National Disaster Relief Force jawans, adding, “two persons are responding to our calls from inside the debris. They are referring to two four more people out of which they suspect two have already died.”
Some injured have been admitted to SSKM Hospital, while others were rushed to CMRI Hospital, sources said.
A packed office time stationery local train waiting to depart for Budge Budge from the New Alipore Station just about a hundred yards from the accident site was saved by a whisker, even as Railway authorities immediately suspended all trains between New Alipore and Budge Budge, “until inspection of the area and further orders”.
“I was travelling in a cab at about 4.30 pm when suddenly the vehicle started shaking. Even before I was able to figure out, I found going down along with the car. And in no time a minibus, some cars, including that of a chief judge of the City Civil Court, some motorbikes and cycles had all converged at one point because the section of the bridge had collapsed from the middle,” said Sisir Chakrabarty, who despite being in trauma rescued three persons.
"We were in a nearby club when a great sound shook us and we rushed in to find the accident. We pulled out the people trapped inside the debris and rushed them to the hospitals long before the police came," said Md Aslam a local.
A host of Ministers, including Firhad Hakim, Sovan Chatterjee and Opposition MlAs Sujan Chakrabarty, Abdul Mannan and Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar rushed to the spot even as the CISF and Army
Jawans assisted the police and NDRF in relief work. The locals also rushed to the victims' rescue in huge numbers, sources at the hospital said.
"The vibrators used by the Metro Railway engineers might have done the damage to the old beridge," State Government sources said. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee who was currently in Darjeeling and was
supposed to take the first flight back to Kolkata on Wednesday said "one person has so far been declared dead and about 17 others injured," adding the Government would institute an investigation and fix responsibilities.
"We are very worried. We are receiving information from the rescue team on the ground (Majerhat bridge collapse in Kolkata). We want to go back as soon as possible. There are no flights in the evening, we are unable to do so," she maintained.
Subsequent reports from the State secretariat at Nabanna corroborated the claims made by the locals saying at least five people might have died.
State Governor KN Tripathi, however, blamed the "poor maintenance" saying "the bridge demanded better maintenance," referring to a pit underneath the flyover which was left untreated. "There was a report on a pit here for quite sometime, I don't know whether PWD noted it. PWD and Railway administration had the responsibility to maintain it. The matter requires investigation," he maintained.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted, "The collapse of a part of a bridge in Kolkata is deeply unfortunate. My thoughts are with the families of the victims. I pray that those who are injured recover at the earliest."
The bridge that connects Esplanade to Behala in the south-eastern part of Kolkata and Diamond Harbour down south was constructed more than 40 years ago.
Tuesday's was the fourth such incident of bridge collapse in the past several years. While one bridge collapsed taking down a truck at Ulta Danga in northern Kolkata adjoining Salt lake a second under-construction Bridge caved in at Posta in North Kolkata in March 2016 taking 27 lives. The third such incident happened at Siliguri on August 11 this year when an under-construction bridge caved.