India
Bengal minister of urban development and municipal affairs, Firhad Hakim, called it's a 'small depression, no crack'. In the past five years, three bridges across Kolkata have collapsed
Kolkata: Close on the heels of the Majerhat bridge collapse a few weeks ago, the Karunamoyee bridge in Kolkata's Tollygunge area seems to be headed for the same fate.
A section of the Karunamoyee bridge has become visibly disjointed and is close to collapse. However, minister of urban development and municipal affairs, Firhad Hakim termed it as a 'small depression, no crack'.
Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA) engineers visited the spot after being alerted. The traffic on the route has been restricted, which may affect residents of the entire area of Behala and Thakur Pukur.
In the past five years, three bridges across Kolkata have collapsed, raising serious doubts over the Bengal government's seriousness towards to the safety of the citizens. The most recent bridge collapse, at Majerhat, killed one and injured at least 30 people. The PWD had raised red flags way back in 2015 and had declared it ‘unsafe’.
“Locals have been telling the PWD, particularly of late about the serious situation of the bridge. But it simply didn’t act,” Union minister Babul Supriyo alleged. He hit the Trinamool Congress government hard, saying, “Mamata Banerjee has only painted the bridges blue and white and done nothing about the safety (in spite of so many red flags).”
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