Five people were injured and Mumbai’s suburban Western Railway service was paralysed for several hours after a section of a crucial road overbridge came crashing down on the tracks.
The incident took place around 7.30 a.m. The pedestrian section of the Gokhale Road bridge, which connects Andheri (East) with Andheri (West) collapsed on the tracks below following incessant rains, damaging the overhead equipment as well as a portion of platforms eight and nine of Andheri station.
Dwarkaprasad Sharma, Girdhari Singh and Asmita Katkar were crossing the bridge when it gave way. They suffered multiple fractures. Manoj Mehta was waiting for a train on platform No.8 when the debris fell on him. Haresh Koli fell on the tracks at platform No. 1 as the peak hour rush became unmanageable after the collapse.
Nearly 500 personnel from the Railways, the Fire Brigade, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation and the National Disaster Response Force worked for several hours to remove the debris from the tracks.
Railway Minister Piyush Goyal visited the site in the evening. He said Commissioner of Rail Safety would hold an inquiry and submit its report within 15 days. A joint-safety audit would be conducted by the railways, the BMC and IIT at 445 road overbridges, foot overbridges and bridges over pipelines in Mumbai.
“I do not want to indulge in a blame game,” said Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. “The incident has happened and that is the reality. We will have to fix the responsibility on someone, be it the BMC or the government or the railways.”
The Western Railway resumed services between Bandra and Churchgate and between Goregaon and Virar around 9 a.m. Services to Churchgate and CST from Goregaon started around 2.15 p.m. WR resumed services on the fast corridor by late evening.
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