Kolkata Majherhat bridge collapse: CM Mamata Banerjee to visit spot today
Kolkata, Sept 5 (IBNS): West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday will visit Kolkata's Majherhat area, where a portion of a bridge collapsed a day ago, media reports said.
The accident claimed one life and injured 25 others.
Mamata will come from Darjeeling, where the Chief Minister had visited for her administrative works.
A nearly 200 feet block of a 40-year-old rail over bridge collapsed on Majherhat canal beside railway tracks.
Several private cars and motorcycles, three app based cabs and one minibus were trapped in the wreckage and several people were hurt in the mishap.
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.
Five teams of NDRF mobilised for search and rescue operation to Mjerhaat, Kolkata, where flyover collapsed. pic.twitter.com/mdvLwqe7ga
— NDRF (@NDRFHQ) September 4, 2018
The rescue operation is still underway but no more body is feared to be trapped now, local media report said.
After being rescued, injured persons were rushed to CMRI and SSKM hospitals.
One youth dies in the tragedy:
The youth, who was injured in Majherhat bridge collapse and later died in SSKM hospital, has been identified as Soumen Bag.
He was a resident of Behala's Silpara area.
He was returning home after buying books from College Street area of central Kolkata when the bridge collapsed.
Bag was rescued from the wreckage in a critical condition and was rushed to SSKM hospital where the youth died later.
His parents, Pradip Bag and Anita Bag, identified the body of Soumen Bag at the state-run hospital.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday announced a compensation of 5 lakh rupees to the deceased's family and 50 thousand rupees each to the injured persons.
Eastern Railway clarifies:
Meanwhile, amid the blame game over the collapse of a portion of Kolkata's Majherhat bridge, the Eastern Railway has clarified that it was not carrying out any work at the site where the accident took place on Tuesday.
Issuing a statement, the Eastern Railway said: "It is stated by a section of press and media that Railway's construction work was going on. It is clarified that no railway work was going on at the affected Majherhat bridge."
The railway has also clarified that there is no link between the ongoing construction of the metro projects and the accident.
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