Strong winds ripped apart the aluminium panels of the skywalk at Bandra West on Wednesday afternoon, injuring three women.
The skywalk connects Bandra station to S.V. Road’s Lucky junction. It was constructed around 10 years ago by the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) and handed over to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation for maintenance around two years ago. MMRDA recently announced that this skywalk, along with two others in Santacruz and Vile Parle, will have to be demolished for the construction of Metro 2B.
The women injured in Wednesday’s incident, identified as Tejal Kadam (27), Sulakshana Vaze (41) and Melissa Nazerette (30), were waiting for their office car under the skywalk, on S.V. Road, when the panels fell on them at around 1.20 p.m. They were stuck under the debris for a few minutes until onlookers pulled them out.
Ms. Vaze immediately informed her colleague who took them to the Holy Family Hospital at Bandra, where primary treatment was provided to them. “They had minor injuries, which were treated immediately. One of them had a minor shoulder injury that was taken care of. We also took X-rays and CT scans of the patients, which were normal. The patients were discharged at 4.30 p.m. with no major physical injuries,” Dr. Niraj Uttamani, Medical Director, Holy Family Hospital, said.
One of the women said they were extremely fortunate that they had their umbrellas open at the time, or the panels would have fallen on their heads. “I am disturbed and extremely sad about the monsoon preparations,” she said, not wishing to be named.
“The fibres had fallen because of the harsh wind. To avoid such mishaps we have gotten all the fibre sheets removed from the sky walk immediately,” Sandeep Bhajibhakre, Deputy Commissioner of Police (traffic suburbs), said.
The BMC’s Bridges Department said there was no structural danger to the skywalk. “Since the skywalk was to be demolished, we did not do a structural audit here,” said an engineer from the department. “We knew the panels were unnecessary and removed them from other skywalks. In this case, they were not removed as it was slated for demolition. As an immediate measure, we are removing all panels tonight,” he said.
