City Flyover collapses

Local residents,who were awaken from their sleep by the loud noise of the collapse,frantically rushed to the direction of the sound. To their utter dismay,they found that around 40 metres of the flyover used by the vehicles from the VIP Road to reach EM Bypass had collapsed. They found the mangled remains of the truck and three persons trapped inside it.

Police and the Fire services department were informed along with a disaster management group who joined the rescue operation. Police immediately closed both the flanks of the flyover — the one that collapsed and another just beside it that is used by the vehicles from EM bypass to reach VIP Road — as a precautionary measure. Bidhannagar city police as well as Kolkata Police were deployed at the spot for managing traffic.

Soon after the incident,a blame game erupted between the CPM and the ruling Trinamool Congress with Urban Development Minister Firhad Hakim blaming the previous Left Front government for hurriedly inaugurating the flyover in the run-up to the 2011 Assembly elections. Hakim,who visited the site,ordered an inquiry. He said action will be taken against engineers found responsible for the collapse. A third party will now inspect the entire flyover,he said,and added that a three-member committee comprising civil engineers of Jadavpur University and chief engineer of KMDA has been formed to prepare a report on the reason for the collapse of the portion of the bridge.

He said a year and half ago,the government received information that there was a crack on the Ultadanga flyover. A team of JU engineers inspected the flyover and recommended that the crack needs to be repaired,which was done immediately.

The flyover was built under the JNNURM scheme at a cost of Rs 68 crore.

‘Suddenly,we found our lorry going down’

The Ultandanga flyover collapse on Sunday was a nightmare for Khaled Mohammad,the driver of the 18-wheeler truck who suddenly found the “ground missing from beneath” the vehicle.

After recovering his senses,the driver of the truck that was coming from Rajasthan said: “I don’t know whether my family had received the information about my injury. I am the only breadwinner in my family. I don’t know when will I recover from my injury.” Khaled,a resident of Dauri village of Rajasthan,has two children — a son and a daughter.

While two of the victims including the driver and a helper were admitted at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital,one of them with critical injuries has been shifted to a private hospital on the EM Bypass. Khaled has received major injury in his head and abdomen. He said his chest,hands and legs were hurting.

Mojid Khan,the 25-year-old resident of Alwar district in Rajasthan,has received minor chest injury. “I was sleeping. All of a sudden,we felt that right side of the bridge going down. It was dark all around us. Suddenly we fell down and I became unconscious,” said Khan.

Sheikh Saifuddin’s condition is critical of the three. Doctors said he has suffered facial fracture. The relatives of the three are expected to arrive in Kolkata tomorrow.