Death toll continue to rise in Majherhat bridge collapse

Another body was recovered Thursday from the debris of the collapsed Majerhat bridge in south Kolkata, taking the toll in the mishap to three, a police official said.

The body was identified as that of Goutam Mondal (45), a laborer from Murshidabad district who was missing along with another laborer Pranab Dey since the accident on Tuesday, he said.

Mondal was working as a cook in the extension of the Metro rail project going on adjacent to the Majerhat bridge, he said.

Twenty-four-year-old Dey's body was recovered Wednesday. He too hailed from Murshidabad district and was working as a laborer in the Metro project.

A man identified as Somen Bag was killed in the mishap on Tuesday. Of the 24 injured in the bridge collapse, 11 were discharged Wednesday and 13 are currently under treatment in different hospitals, the official said.

After Mondal's body was found, NDRF personnel left the spot. "We are closing our operations as it seems there is nobody stuck inside," an official of the NDRF said.

State disaster management department personnel continued their work at the accident site with cranes, earth movers, and drilling machines.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who presided over a high-level meeting at the state secretariat, told reporters that the rescue operation was complete.

She said the Metro Railways has been asked to stop its work at Majerhat temporarily till a committee headed by Chief Secretary Moloy Dey gives its report within a week.

Noting that the Metro railway had been working there for the last nine years, she said, "The piling work caused big vibration. It might have affected the bridge. The high-powered committee will look into it".

Rail Vikas Nigam Limited, executing the construction of the Joka-BBD Bag metro corridor which passes through the vicinity of Majherhat bridge, had said on Tuesday "there is no relationship of Metro construction" with the incident.

The Kolkata Police Thursday constituted a special investigation team to probe the bridge collapse, a senior police officer said.

The detective department of the police has taken up the investigation, he said.

As part of the investigation, the sleuths have recorded statements of the witnesses, he said.

The bridge in Alipore area runs over the Majerhat Railway station and connects the city center with the heavily-populated Behala, vast areas of the south-west suburbs and neighboring South 24 Parganas district.

With the arterial Diamond Harbour Road closed after the bridge collapse and less number of buses plying, thousands of commuters were stuck in huge traffic jams since morning.

"We have diverted vehicles to and from the city through various other roads," an officer of Kolkata Police traffic department said.

The police have lodged a suo motu case against unknown persons in connection with their involvement in the collapse.

This is the third bridge collapse in the city since 2013.

An under-construction flyover had collapsed in the crowded Burrabazar area, the wholesale business hub of the city, on March 31, 2016, claiming 26 lives.

On March 4, 2013, a road bridge collapsed in Ultadanga area in the northern part of the city. There was no casualty.