3 employees in court over flyover collapse
Officials rule out chance of finding any more survivors ‘We are devastated’
KOLKATA, April 3, (AFP): Three employees of the Indian construction firm building a flyover that collapsed appeared in court Saturday facing four initial charges including murder, a public prosecutor said, as the death toll rose to 26.
The three appeared at the Metropolitan Magistrate Court in Kolkata after being arrested Friday over the disaster, which saw a 100-metre section of the flyover crash down onto a street below, crushing pedestrians and vehicles.
“All the accused were produced in court today. The charges against the accused are conspiracy, attempt to murder and mischief,” Pijush Kanti Mondal, chief public prosecutor, told AFP.
“In the case of murder, (if convicted) they can face life imprisonment or a death sentence,” Mondal said.
Remanded
The three, who include one senior employee and an engineer, have been remanded in police custody for nine days, the prosecutor added.
Five other staff were detained for questioning Friday over the tragedy, as police sealed off the Kolkata office of IVRCL, the contractor behind the ill-fated construction project in West Bengal state.
Although officials have ruled out the chance of finding any more survivors under the rubble, a rescue operation continued Saturday at the site where blocks of concrete and twisted girders lay strewn. The death toll rose to 26 after rescuers found the body of a truck driver’s assistant lying crushed under the rubble, Kolkata police joint commissioner KOLKATA, April 3, (AFP): At the site of Kolkata’s collapsed flyover, the ground covered in white ash, rescuers work in shifts to head into the rubble, hopeful that one or two survivors might still be pulled from the wreckage.
Like every day, Gulab Mali was selling temple paraphernalia such as incense from his street-side stall which sits directly under the flyover when the partially built road bridge crashed down onto a busy street below, killing at east 25 people.
“We were standing a few blocks away and heard this massive thud,” said Uona Sankar, Mali’s sister-inlaw, speaking in Bengali as her niece translated.
“We thought, oh no, where is Gulab? Several members of the family went down to look for him.”
The family saw him being pulled out by rescuers and took him to hospital. But Mali was already dead, crushed by falling debris. “We are devastated,” Sankar said. Down a narrow lane off the main street where the accident occurred, dozens of women dressed in multicoloured
Debasish Boral said.
The West Bengal government has ordered an investigation into the state agency responsible for infrastructure and construction over how the project came to be approved.
Police have registered a case of culpable homicide against the firm while Derek O’Brien, a state lawmaker, has said the company had been blacklisted in other states and had a “bad reputation”.
Construction of the two-kilometre-long flyover began in 2009 and was supposed to be completed within 18 months, but suffered a series of hold-ups.
IVRCL has denied responsibility saris sat solemnly as they waited to pay their respects to the family.
Mali’s son, aged 30, was due to get married in three weeks’ time.
“We can’t understand why this has happened to us,” said one of Mali’s nieces, who declined to give her name. “All of his relatives loved him.” Hundreds of curious onlookers peered over barriers at the accident site to get a glimpse of the mangled mess of metal and rubble, as police officers tried to push them back.
“We are waiting for our orders,” said Mantosh Sarkar, a rescue worker, wearing a hard hat and orange high-vis jacket.
Builders who survived the accident say they were cementing two metal girders when they saw bolts coming out and realised it was collapsing under the weight of the concrete. Yellow diggers lifted debris sprawled across the street. Every so often a barrier would open and a large truck would pass through carrying huge slabs of heavy concrete, its siren blaring.
for the disaster in the capital of West Bengal state. A company representative infuriated victims on Thursday when he described the disaster as an “act of God”.
Authorities initially struggled to get cranes and other large machinery through the narrow streets of Burrabazar, one of the oldest and most congested parts of the city, to reach the accident site.
On Saturday, Rahul Gandhi, the vice-president of the opposition Congress party, visited the site and met with injured victims recuperating at a city hospital.
The disaster is the latest in a string of deadly construction accidents
Hundreds of empty water bottles lay discarded on the road, evidence of the huge rescue effort carried out the night before.
Dressed in white shirts and khaki pants, Subhronil Das was one of 200 volunteers from the Hindu nationalist group RSS who helped to clear the debris.
“The slabs were really heavy, it was very difficult,” he said as he left the site.
It was unclear what caused the road’s sudden collapse, but police have registered a preliminary case against the contractor, and detained five of its staff.
M.P. Sharma, 70, lives on the fourth floor of an apartment block which looks directly over the collapsed flyover.
“I’m not an engineer but there was obviously some drawback in the construction,” he said, adding that he was considering moving with his grandchild to stay with a relative for safety.
“There will be talk of compensation. But you can’t replace the life of a person with rupees.”
in India, where enforcement of safety rules is weak and substandard materials are often used.
It comes at a sensitive time for West Bengal’s Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, whose centreleft Trinamool Congress party is seeking re-election.
Banerjee has blamed the previous state government under which the flyover project was started, but has herself faced criticism over the beleaguered construction project.
Voting in the West Bengal elections begins on Monday and will be held in five phases lasting a month.