Mumbai: Two concrete slabs of the 35-year-old foot over-bridge outside the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus railway station caved in on Thurs-day evening killing at least six people, including three women. Thirty-three other people were injured, two of whom are believed to be critical. Most of them sustained head injuries while they were walking under the bridge and the chunks of concrete fell on them in a heap.
The collapse took place at one of the busiest junctions in Mumbai during peak hour, when commuters were swarming the bridge in a scramble to reach home. The FOB connects the railway station to the Azad Maidan police station and the Times of India building.
The two women who died were both staffers of the nearby GT Hospital, where some of the injured were taken. The accident has happened almost two years after 23 people were crushed to death in a stampede at Prabhadevi station. According Minister Vinod Tawde, the CSMT FOB was not in a bad condition; it required minor repairs for which work was underway. Why it was not closed until the repair work was complete, remains a mystery.
The fire brigade and a team of the National Disaster Response Force rushed to the site of the accident but before they could reach, locals had taken up the rescue work in their hands. No BMC staffers could be seen at the spot, even though its head office is at a walking distance. Late in evening, the BMC deployed heavy machinery to demolish what remains of the footbridge.
The debris had been removed by night-time. Almost 60 percent of the bridge had collapsed; it happened at 7.20 pm and the fire department and the police got a distress call at 7.39 pm; by the time they reached the spot it was 7.50pm.
Time is of essence in such mishaps. The traffic on the entire stretch from the BMC headquarters till the accident spot came to standstill, as this is the main connecting road to the JJ flyover. Among the first to report the mishap was the Mumbai police on Twitter, asking commuters to take alternative routes.
There was utter chaos and commotion at the spot with debris lying all over. Arogyanathan, a retired South-Central loco pilot and resident of Hyderabad, had arrived in Mumbai on Thursday afternoon and was just 300 metres away from the accident spot. “I was heading from the station to Kalbadevi, when I suddenly saw something fall from above.
Moments later, I realised that the bridge was falling down,” said Arog – yanathan. Interestingly, after a portion of the Andheri over-bridge coll – apsed on July 3, 2018, an elaborate structured audit of foot bridges was conducted. Incidentally, the audit report on CSTM FOB was sub – mitted six months back, which had merely suggested minor repairs. Congress leader Milind Deora has demanded lodging of FIR against the engineers and the auditors for criminal negligence.
As the blame game continues, the city is clueless why the so-called ‘minor’ repairs were not undertaken and why an entire slab should collapse, leaving a yawning 20-feet gap — right from where the bridge starts on the CST side, till the middle. Arvind Sawant, Member of Parliament, said:
“The ill-fated bridge was not in the list of dilapidated or dangerous structures. Instead, it was in the list of structures requiring minor repairs; and even before it could be repaired, it collapsed.” Local corporator Sujata Sawant said, “The former corporator, Ganesh Sawant, had written a letter to the authorities alerting them to the dangerous condition of the bridge.
According to the report, the ‘Kasab Bridge’ – as it is known — was not part of any structural audit, despite several reminders. The bridge is under the Central Railway’s jurisdiction and I will blame them for the collapse.” The state government has asked both the railways and the BMC to jointly investigate the incident and fix responsibility.
