Ina distributing incident, six persons were killed, while 31 were injured after a section of a foot over bridge near a busy train station in south Mumbai collapsed during evening rush hour on Thursday, officials said.
The bridge was located near the Times of India building and the iconic Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus railway station, which known as ‘Kasab bridge’ as the 26/11 Mumbai attack terrorist passed through it during the strike.
The injured were rushed to nearby hospitals, a disaster management cell official said.
Just after the incident, Mumbai Police sent out a tweet saying: “Foot over-bridge connecting CST platform 1 north end with B T Lane near Times of India building has collapsed. Injured persons are being shifted to hospitals. Traffic affected. Commuters to use alternate routes. Senior officers are on spot.”
Apoorva Prabhu (35), Anjana Tambe (40), Bhakti Shinde (40), Zahid Shiraj Khan (32), Tapendra Singh (28) and Mohan succumbed to their injuries said the disaster management cell of the BMC.
Prabhu and Tambe were employees of the G T Hospital, the officials said.
A case has been registered against officials of Central Railway and the BMC in connection with the incident, police said.
“We have registered an offence under section 304A (causing death by negligence) of the IPC at the Azaad Maidan police station,” said Manjunath Singe, spokesperson of the Mumbai Police.
Later that night, civic authorities started removing the remaining portion of the over bridge
Additional Municipal Commissioner of the BMC, Vijay Singhal, said the remaining portion of the damaged bridge will be dismantled manually. He added that strict action would be taken against the firm that conducted the structural audit of the bridge.
As reported by PTI, Deven Bharti, Joint Commissioner (Law & Order), said that police “will, for sure, launch an inquiry into the incident”.
Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has said that a compensation of Rs 5 lakh would be provided to each family of the deceased and said a high-level committee would look into the circumstances under which the 40-year-old overbridge collapsed.
Fadnavis also said that the injured would be given a compensation of Rs 50,000 each and their medical costs would be borne by the government. He stressed that officials found responsible for the incident will be booked.
A source has said that the foot over-bridge was being used by pedestrians whilst repair works were ongoing.
Several motorists were also injured as they were under the bridge when it collapsed.
Many Lawmakers and local party leaders reached the site as political blame-games unfolded.
Congress leader Milind Deora said auditors must be charged with murder as for faultily inspecting the bridge and the BMC officers for appointing them.
He said that Mumbaikars are constantly feeling unsafe in the city, considering the frequent incidents of bridge collapses. He stressed that he wasn’t politicising the issue, but said that false promises wouldn’t serve the people anyway. He added that it was a failure of the government and the system.
In July last year, portion of a road over-bridge had collapsed in suburban Andheri. Railway Minister Piyush Goyal had then announced a joint safety audit of all 445 bridges in Mumbai.
In response to this, the railways, the BMC and the IIT-Bombay had conducted a safety audit.
