Before every avoidable incident, the Bengal government callously looked the other way when the portents pointed at substandard construction material and faulty design of a bridge
Ma, Mati, Manush (mother, earth, humans) was her slogan on which she rode to power. Even today, the hashtag for attracting investment is 'Best Bengal'. Unnayan (development) is something that every minister and MP of her party swears by. But in the last five years alone, Kolkata has seen 3 flyovers crumble ― some crushing many innocent lives under the debris.
The evening of September 4 was ominous for passengers using the Majerhat flyover on Diamond Harbour Road when precisely at 4:45 PM, it came down crashing. Initial reports suggest 5 people are dead and 20 injured.
Out of the 20, at least 13 are stuck under the debris of the 40-year old bridge. Three vehicles and their occupants were stuck inside a car when the flyover crumbled ― to their horror.
Not just that, the collapse over railway tracks occurred in the area adjacent to the Circular Railway line at Majerhat, leading to the damage of a signal post on the track under the debris. An eyewitness told MyNation that a bus was barely saved. He said, “The bus got saved by a few seconds. The cracking point was barely 25 m from where the bus was. Had the bus been late by a few seconds, casualties would have gone up beyond our comprehension”.
Meanwhile, the chief minister has ordered an inquiry into what is the third such instance in just about five years.
An incident that was tragic as well as shameful, the 2.2 km-long under-construction bridge came down like a pack of cards, killing 26 precious lives. On March 31 at 12:32 PM, government indifference coupled with administrative negligence sealed the fate of 26 people. AGK Murthy, the operations director of IVRCL, the company responsible for the construction of the company, gave a shocking remark: "It is an act of God." This was a heaping insult upon injury.
But there are more reasons to be infuriated. Kolkata Police found that Pier No 40C of the flyover had buckled, which led to the collapse. The charge sheet filed states very explicitly that the steel used for the pier was not of expected quality, which led to the accident. The charge sheet used the word "failed" for the steel used for the problematic pier. Simply put, the steel was of rejected quality.
What was sold by the Banerjee government as an ‘accident’ was actually a result of criminal negligence at best and administrative complicity at worst. As many as 26 lives could have been saved had the Ma-Mati-Manush government simply played by the rule book.
Exactly three years before the Vivekananda Bridge collapsed, a huge chunk of a Ultadanga flyover on the eastern side of the Kolkata collapsed. The flyover is at one of the busiest intersections of the city. This accident could have killed many ― going by the sheer number of people travelling through that junction. Only the timing of the accident saved the day. The bridge collapsed precisely at 4:45 in the morning, injuring only three.
Nevertheless, the debris took down a truck. The truck, along with the debris of the flyover, was drifted to the nearby canal, from where the driver was rescued by the fire brigade. This time as well, investigations suggested it was a technical fault in the bolt system that went undetected!
In spite of holding those responsible accountable, then Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader and minister Firhad Hakim blamed the accident on the left front ― to everyone’s amazement.
The Majerhat bridge collapse is not an isolated incident but a symptom of a larger problem. The problem being criminal negligence and administrative apathy. As many in the opposition allege, sometimes it’s also political indifference to a blatant violation of rules that puts lives of countless people plying over a structure like a flyover at grave risk. Death seems to have become a statistic for the Banerjee government. Twenty-six victims of Vivekananda flyover collapse are yet to get justice from an apathetic system made complex by the snail's pace of judicial procedure.
Three collapse in five years ― that's 'unnayan' for you.
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