Fix responsibility for bridge collapse by evening: Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis

Following the collapse of the foot overbridge at Mumbai’s CST station on Thursday evening, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday said he had asked Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) chief Ajoy Mehta to fix “primary responsibility” for Thursday’s foot overbridge collapse by Friday evening. The chief minister met the injured at the St George’s Hospital in the vicinity.

 “It is shocking that such an accident can take place even after a structural audit. Primary responsibility will be fixed by this evening. I have asked civic chief (Ajoy Mehta) to find out names of those responsible,” Fadnavis said. “A high-level probe into this incident has already been ordered. Those responsible (for the collapse) will be punished,” he added.

Earlier in the day, a BMC official had said the foot overbridge was found to be structurally safe when it was audited in August 2016, soon after a British-era bridge over Savitri River got washed away in monsoon downpour in Mahad in Raigad district.

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“During that audit, 354 bridges were checked for their structural soundness. The FOB that collapsed on Thursday was marked C2B. This means it needed minor repairs only. Tenders were floated for the repair but it got held up,” the official had said Friday morning.

Fadnavis also said he had ordered a re-visit of all earlier structural audits carried out on such structures.

As many as six persons were killed after a major portion of a foot overbridge near CST station in south Mumbai collapsed. The bridge connected the bustling Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus railway station with the Azad Maidan Police Station.

An eyewitness said when the bridge collapsed, there was a red light at the nearby signal, and that is why the death toll was contained. Another eyewitness said the overbridge was being used despite repairs being carried out since morning.