Twenty-one people were killed, over a 150 injured and scores were trapped, when a flyover under construction crashed in the busy Burrabazar junction in northern Kolkata on Thursday. The Army was called in to assist in the rescue operation and nearly 500 soldiers, including ten military medical teams, ambulances, paramedics, rescue teams with sophisticated gas cutters and cranes, besides police, disaster response teams and fire brigade personnel transported the badly injured as well as nearly dying to hospitals an extricated corpses.
The soldiers are using specialised equipment to rescue those trapped under tonnes of steel and concrete, a Defence Ministry spokesman said. With the first phase of the polls only a few days away, the tragedy triggered a bitter blame game. While the BJP, the left and the Congress tried to corner the Trinamool Congress Government, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee shifted the blame on the left parties during whose regime construction work on the project had begun.
Meanwhile, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh directed the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) Director-General OP Singh to engage all resources for rescue of those trapped under the debris. Singh is currently touring West Bengal to campaign for BJP candidates for the upcoming Assembly elections in the State.
The Home Minister also briefed Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is in the US, about the collapse of the flyover. “Had a telephonic conversation with the PM and apprised him of the rescue operations being carried out by the NDRF in Kolkata,” Singh tweeted. In a statement, the Home Ministry said the NDRF has deputed seven teams (about 315 personnel) for rescue operations at the site in North Kolkata.
The accident occurred at 12.27 pm as per CCTV footage records on the busy Vivekananda Road-Rabindra Sarani crossing and was promptly passed off as a “God’s act” by the Hyderabad-based construction company IVRCl. later in the evening and FIR was registered against the construction company.
Mamata made an announcement of Rs 5 lakh ex-gratia for the families of those killed in the tragedy, Rs 3 lakh for the grievously hurt and
Rs 1 lakh for those who suffered minor injuries.
At least one minibus and a school bus, a truck several taxis and auto rickshaws were reportedly trapped when “heaven came crashing down” eyewitnesses said, adding “it was a thunder-like sound and we felt some bombs had exploded and mistook the flying dust as smoke.”
“It is an uphill task as the girders span a good 40-50 feet,” said NDRF personnel trying to cut the beams into smaller pieces for removal.
The magnitude of the crash was so devastating with bus-load of passengers still stuck under the debris that it required central intervention and NDRF teams from neighbouring States like Bihar were asked to join the rescue operations at the instance of Prime MinisterNarendra Modi, sources said.
Many voices that were crying for help from under the debris even a couple of hours after the accident gradually fell silent even as rescuers including Army jawans, central paramilitary forces, NDRF men and the locals watched helplessly.
Even as the police and fire department looked listless about their immediate job living rescue operations completely on the locals, things took speed after the Army was pressed in service. They brought modern equipment, cut the iron nets and concrete before pulling the victims out.
The sight was so gruesome that some of the women fainted even as they saw locals pulling out the dead literally drenched in blood. “My wife had to be hospitalised as she suffered an attack and fainted after seeing a body whose head had smashed and white stuffs came out of it,” said Amit Majumdar a passerby.
Meanwhile, the rescuers struggled against time to save the trapped and the politicians indulged in mud-slinging with the Chief Minister who had even a few days ago taken the credit decongesting Burrabazar by constructing the flyover blaming the left Government for awarding the contract to a Hyderabad-based company.
“They started the project in 2009,” she said, alleging the contractors were not giving the site plan to the Government despite repeated demands. “We will institute an enquiry and take stringent action against those found guilty.”
CPI(M) leader and then Urban Development Minister Ashok Bhattacharya said, “during our time only a few pilings were made and a couple of piers were half-constructed. If she had doubts why did she not stop the work. We had given the contract through a competitive bidding.”
Congress’ Adhir Chowdhury demanded immediate arrest of present Urban Development Minister Firhad Hakim complaining his Department which was responsible for supervising the work failed in its job.
“How can the contractors work when they have to shell out huge amount of money in giving commissions to those in powerIJ” he said.
Incidentally an injured construction worker whom your correspondent met at the hospital said “some of the bolts joining girders were giving way when we started casting work on the bridge and the engineers finally got the joints welded. It caved in when we were about to complete the work today.”
BJP leaders also pointed fingers at a “corrupt” Government for the accident. Party leader Kailash Vijayvargiya said “It’s an example of the corruption by the Mamata Banerjee Government. People of state will not forgive her.”
His party colleague Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi demanded CBI investigation into the incident saying “it is a clear cut case of corruption for which this Government has earned a name.”
K Pandurang of the construction company expressed shock at the incident saying “it is baffling to note that the bridge collapsed after 70 per cent of the work had completed. Even the Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority was keeping a continuous check on the development.”