Majherhat bridge collapse: Death toll rises to two; Mamata Banerjee blames metro construction for accident
Kolkata, Sept 5 (IBNS): The death toll in Majherhat bridge collapse incident rose to two on Wednesday while leaving 25 others injured.
Soumen Bag, a resident of Behala, died on Tuesday.
The second deceased has been identified as Pranab De. The body of De, a 21-year old metro construction worker, was recovered from under the debris and taken to SSKM hospital on Wednesday evening.
Another person is feared trapped under the debris. The rescue operation is still underway.
Two persons are admitted to CMRI and SSKM in critical condition.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday visited the site of the accident, which took place a day ago.
Blame game over the accident:
Mamata has blamed Metro Railway's construction activities responsible for the accident, though trying to distance herself from drawing a "conclusion".
She said: "Vibrations occurred due to metro construction works. This is factual. It happened in other metro constructions in the city as well."
"Full investigation will take place. We do not want to draw a conclusion and give certificate right now," the Chief Minister added.
However, the Eastern Railway authorities have already denied that the bridge collapsed owing to the impact of their construction work for metro.
Mamata called an "emergency meeting" at 3.30 pm on Wednesday. She said the incident will be discussed "extensively" in the meeting.
Bridge Collapse:
A nearly 200 feet block of a major bridge over a railway track collapsed on Majherhat canal beside railway tracks.
Several private cars and motorcycles, three app based cabs and one minibus fell down with the wreckage.
Local police, state fire and emergency services officials, Disaster Management Group (DMG) personnel, a unit of NDRF and a team from the Indian Army joined the rescue operation after the collapse of the bridge.
A day after a portion of Majherhat railway over bridge (ROB) collapsed, the Calcutta High Court on Wednesday granted permission to an advocate to lodge a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) into the disaster while the city police has registered a suo motu FIR against the bridge's maintenance agencies, reports said.
Compensation:
The Chief Minister announced compensation amounts of Rs. 5 lakh to the families of the deceased and Rs, 50,000 for the injured people.
(Reporting by Souvik Ghosh with additional input by Deepayan Sinha, Main Image by Subhodeep Sardar/IBNS)
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