The death toll in the collapse of an under-construction bridge at the Chambal river in Kota district of Rajasthan mounted to 37 on Thursday, with one more body being recovered from the rubble.
Rescue workers were still looking for the remaining 10 labourers under the partially-submerged bridge. They are now presumed dead.
About 50 labourers were working at the site when the bridge, being built by jointly by an Indian and a South Korean firm 50 metres over the river on the proposed East-West Corridor, caved in on Thursday last.
According to Kota Collector T. Ravikant, rescue workers extricated a mutilated body from the concrete pile with great difficulty, even as disaster relief operators from Gujarat and Goa were removing debris weighing about 8,000 tonnes.
The National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) has paid Rs.4.20 crore as financial assistance to the families of the labourers who lost their lives.
The State government also paid an ex-gratia assistance of Rs.2 lakh to the next of kin of each of the deceased from the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund.
