DAY CARS DROPPED LIKE NINEPINS
A portion of the ageing Majerhat Bridge on Diamond Harbour Road in south Calcutta collapsed on Tuesday afternoon. Daily, thousands of cars and buses from Behala and the south and south western suburbs use the bridge. Images on twitter indicated that a slab of the bridge simply fell down together with at least four private cars and a Behala-Rabindranagar minibus.
The suburban railway tracks were spared. One person died in the crash and 19 others were injured. However, eyewitness and rescue workers claimed that five persons perished in the cave-in. Fire brigade personnel engaged in the rescue work said 19 injured were pulled out from the rubble. Several cars that were moving on the bridge before it collapsed, crushed into a rubble. ‘‘We are very worried," said Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who is in Darjeeling. She wanted to return to Kolkata as soon possible, but that was not possible since there were no flights in the evening. Mukul Roy, a West Bengal BJP leader, said the Banerjee government should take "complete responsibility" for the collapse, news agency ANI reported.
The collapse sent shockwaves through the city, where 26 people died two years ago in a similar tragedy. Bengal Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi said the 40-year-old bridge "deserved better maintenance". "There was a report about a pit for quite some time, I don't know whether the Public Works Department addressed it. PWD and railway administration had the responsibility to maintain it. The matter requires investigation," he added.