MUMBAI: Barely 9 months after the Elphinstone Road stampede that killed 23 other folks, a portion of the over- 40-year-old Gokhale over-bridge in Andheri crashed directly to railway platforms No. eight and 9 at 7.30 on Tuesday morning amid heavy rain around the city. Five other folks had been injured, three of whom—including a girl—had been at the bridge and two at the platform under.
While the woman, Asmita Katkar (35), mom of a six-year-old, was once vital and combating for existence at Cooper Hospital in Vile Parle at the time of going to press, a chartered accountant, Manoj Mehta (52) suffered accidents to his backbone and had to go through a surgical treatment at Nanavati Hospital. The different three injured had been out of risk at Cooper Hospital.
It was once sheer luck that prevented loss of existence in spite of Western Railway being an excessively busy suburban hall with a less-than-four-minute educate frequency. No educate was once passing underneath, the gang at the bridge and the platform wasn’t sizeable, and a motorman, on recognizing the particles, implemented emergency brakes and halted a local in time to avert a bigger crisis.
The platforms on which the bridge’s southern arm fell handle suburban trains originating from and terminating at Andheri, in addition to a few long-distance trains.
Calling the incident unlucky, railway minister Piyush Goyal mentioned, “I noticed the design of the bridge and studied the drawings and noticed it was once a 40-year-old cantilever bridge, and as a result of it being on cantilever, it collapsed.”
He has ordered an inquiry by means of the commissioner of railway safety, who will publish a file in 15 days. A joint safety audit of 445 over-bridges can be carried out with the assistance of IIT Mumbai professionals. These include foot over-bridges, where handiest pedestrians are allowed, and street over-bridges like the only affected on Tuesday, where automobiles too are allowed to ply. “If the findings reveal a flaw in design or building problem, it's going to be rectified,” he mentioned.
About the Andheri bridge, he mentioned an audit was once performed in November 2017. But nothing strange was once found. “Hence we have made up our minds to contain a 3rd celebration which will establish fault in construction or design,” he mentioned.
With the overhead equipment crashing with the a part of the bridge, WR services had been paralysed all over morning top hours and street jams reported as lakhs of commuters had been hit. Many offices requested their affected staffers to not report back to paintings or to earn a living from home, and several faculties and faculties declared a holiday.
While harbour line services had been restored from Goregaon by means of 1.55pm and WR trains plied between Virar and Borivli, no locals ran at the stretch from Borivli to Andheri all day. The Churchgate fast line then again was once opened at 8pm, and officials mentioned the sluggish traces had been to be opened by means of middle of the night.
“Motorman Chandrashekar Sawant acted briefly and halted the educate. We have made up our minds to award him Rs5 lakh. The injured will likely be given Rs1 lakh every,” Goyal mentioned, adding that round 500 railway staffers had been operating on restoring services.
Members of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) had been also called in, and chief hearth officer PS Rahangdale mentioned hearth engines, ambulances and rescue trucks had been deployed to the spot. Fire officials mentioned seek operations had been undertaken to find out if any person had been trapped below the particles.
Though the BMC had deployed its males and equipment at the crash website, its officials stated the bridge did not belong to them.
Additional municipal commissioner Vijay Singhal mentioned all the street over-bridges on railway premises are constructed and maintained by means of the railways. “Whenever the railways search cash for maintenance and upkeep, the BMC supplies it as possession of land lies with the civic body. However, we cannot execute any works on railway premises,” Singhal mentioned.
BMC officials stated that the civic body has, since 2015-16, paid Central Railways Rs93 crore and WR Rs11 crore for reconstruction and upkeep of over-bridges. Funds had been ultimate supplied for the Andheri bridge in April 2010 (Rs21.2 lakh) and May 2011 (Rs1.eight lakh).
While the woman, Asmita Katkar (35), mom of a six-year-old, was once vital and combating for existence at Cooper Hospital in Vile Parle at the time of going to press, a chartered accountant, Manoj Mehta (52) suffered accidents to his backbone and had to go through a surgical treatment at Nanavati Hospital. The different three injured had been out of risk at Cooper Hospital.
It was once sheer luck that prevented loss of existence in spite of Western Railway being an excessively busy suburban hall with a less-than-four-minute educate frequency. No educate was once passing underneath, the gang at the bridge and the platform wasn’t sizeable, and a motorman, on recognizing the particles, implemented emergency brakes and halted a local in time to avert a bigger crisis.
The platforms on which the bridge’s southern arm fell handle suburban trains originating from and terminating at Andheri, in addition to a few long-distance trains.
Calling the incident unlucky, railway minister Piyush Goyal mentioned, “I noticed the design of the bridge and studied the drawings and noticed it was once a 40-year-old cantilever bridge, and as a result of it being on cantilever, it collapsed.”
He has ordered an inquiry by means of the commissioner of railway safety, who will publish a file in 15 days. A joint safety audit of 445 over-bridges can be carried out with the assistance of IIT Mumbai professionals. These include foot over-bridges, where handiest pedestrians are allowed, and street over-bridges like the only affected on Tuesday, where automobiles too are allowed to ply. “If the findings reveal a flaw in design or building problem, it's going to be rectified,” he mentioned.
About the Andheri bridge, he mentioned an audit was once performed in November 2017. But nothing strange was once found. “Hence we have made up our minds to contain a 3rd celebration which will establish fault in construction or design,” he mentioned.
With the overhead equipment crashing with the a part of the bridge, WR services had been paralysed all over morning top hours and street jams reported as lakhs of commuters had been hit. Many offices requested their affected staffers to not report back to paintings or to earn a living from home, and several faculties and faculties declared a holiday.
While harbour line services had been restored from Goregaon by means of 1.55pm and WR trains plied between Virar and Borivli, no locals ran at the stretch from Borivli to Andheri all day. The Churchgate fast line then again was once opened at 8pm, and officials mentioned the sluggish traces had been to be opened by means of middle of the night.
“Motorman Chandrashekar Sawant acted briefly and halted the educate. We have made up our minds to award him Rs5 lakh. The injured will likely be given Rs1 lakh every,” Goyal mentioned, adding that round 500 railway staffers had been operating on restoring services.
Members of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) had been also called in, and chief hearth officer PS Rahangdale mentioned hearth engines, ambulances and rescue trucks had been deployed to the spot. Fire officials mentioned seek operations had been undertaken to find out if any person had been trapped below the particles.
Though the BMC had deployed its males and equipment at the crash website, its officials stated the bridge did not belong to them.
Additional municipal commissioner Vijay Singhal mentioned all the street over-bridges on railway premises are constructed and maintained by means of the railways. “Whenever the railways search cash for maintenance and upkeep, the BMC supplies it as possession of land lies with the civic body. However, we cannot execute any works on railway premises,” Singhal mentioned.
BMC officials stated that the civic body has, since 2015-16, paid Central Railways Rs93 crore and WR Rs11 crore for reconstruction and upkeep of over-bridges. Funds had been ultimate supplied for the Andheri bridge in April 2010 (Rs21.2 lakh) and May 2011 (Rs1.eight lakh).
Mumbai overbridge collapse: Fear Rises As Another Mumbai Bridge Falls
![Mumbai overbridge collapse: Fear Rises As Another Mumbai Bridge Falls]()
Reviewed by Kailash
on
July 04, 2018
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