Injured man succumbs, panel set up for probe

KOLKATA: ONE of the two persons injured in a partial collapse of the Bardhaman Railway Station building in West Bengal succumbed to his injuries early on Sunday, a state minister said.

A portion of the two-storey station building collapsed on Saturday evening.

The deceased is yet to be identified, an Eastern Railway spokesperson said.

West Bengal minister Swapan Debnath said the man, who suffered serious injuries when a chunk of concrete fell on his head, could not be saved despite efforts by doctors of the Bardhaman Medical College Hospital.

The other injured person has been treated at the state-run hospital, the ER spokesperson said.

Construction and repair work was underway at the century-old station building, nearly 100 km from Kolkata, an ER official said.

A portion of the roof of the portico at the station building collapsed near the enquiry counter, ER spokesman Nikhil Chakraborty said.

Meanwhile, a three-member committee has been formed by the Eastern Railway to conduct an enquiry into the cause of the incident, Chakraborty said.

The ER authorities on Sunday invited eyewitnesses to narrate their accounts before the committee about the incident.

The committee members will sit at the station manager’s chamber at Bardhaman for two hours from 4 pm on Monday to record the accounts of witnesses of the collapse of a portion of the roof of the portico at the station building.

While an unidentified male succumbed to his injuries early on Sunday, another injured person was recovering, an ER spokesman said.

Construction and repair work was underway at the century-old station building, nearly 100 km away from Kolkata, the spokesman said.

“The area has been cordoned off and debris has been cleared from the site,” he said. “No person was found trapped,” the spokesperson said.

He said that supporting steel cribs have been installed at the site to prevent any further damage to the building.