Several sections of Kolkata flyover at risk of crashing, experts say

Kolkata: Design and engineering flaws led to the collapse of the flyover in Kolkata last Thursday that killed 27 people and injured about 100 people, experts have said.

Engineers who inspected the site claim other sections of the bridge too may collapse unless precautionary measures are taken immediately.

Railway Vikas Nigam (RVN), the company that has been assigned the job to dismantle the two dangerously hanging spans of the bridge, is now erecting support structures around the pillars to ensure the decks do not fall during the demolition process.

“We are being given 21 days to complete the task, but before that we need to protect the other sections of the flyover or else another accident is waiting to happen,” an RVN officer said.

Others said that several of the portions are not strong enough and the weakness of pier number 40 and 41 is the reason for the collapse.

“The construction company called it an act of god. In reality it is [an] act of sheer negligence and irresponsibility on the part of builder,” Arobindo Dasgupta, an engineer, said.

Meanwhile, Kolkata Police have arrested Ranajjit Bhattacharjee, IVRCL assistant vice-president of Project Monitoring Cell (PMC) and administration of the Eastern Region. He was taken into custody on Tuesday night, a senior officer said Wednesday.

Bhattacharjee, who had fallen sick and was hospitalised after the incident on March 31, was discharged from the hospital Tuesday evening following which he was taken to the police headquarters for questioning.

So far, 9 officials of IVRCL have been arrested, including Director (Operations) Gopal Krishnamurthy, Deputy General Manager of Project Monitoring Cell S.K. Ratnam, Assistant General Manager Mallikarjun Rao, Assistant Manager Debjyoti Majumdar, Structure Manager Pradip Kumar Saha, Project Manager Tanmoy Sil and senior engineers Shyamal Manna and Bidyut Manna.

The police have charged them under several sections of Indian Penal Code including murder, attempt to murder and conspiracy to murder.

“As many have pointed out that there was severe negligence on part of the construction company. We are interrogating them to find out what led to this negligent,” an investigating officer said.

However, one subcontractor — Sandhyamani Enterprise — owned by Sanjay Bakshi, who is also a relative of senior Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader and parliamentarian Sanjay Bakshi, is on the run.

“We had summoned all the contractors but only Sandhyamani Enterprise has not showed up yet,” police said.

It is learnt that the company was responsible for pouring concrete on Wednesday night that led to the tragic event the following afternoon.