On 31 March 2016, a steel span of the under-construction Vivekananda Road flyover in the

Girish Park Girish Park is a neighbourhood of North Kolkata in Kolkata district in the Indian States and territories of India, state of West Bengal. it is named after famous Bengali Theatre personnel Girish Chandra Ghosh. Geography Police district Girish P ...

neighbourhood of

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

, collapsed. 27 people died and 50 more were injured in the accident.

Background

The construction for the Vivekananda Road flyover was contracted in 2008 and began in 2009. IVRCL, a construction firm based in

Hyderabad Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part ...

, won the bid for the project. The construction was scheduled to be completed in 2010 but overshot the deadline multiple times. IVRCL was given an 18-month deadline by the Chief Minister of West Bengal,

Mamata Banerjee Mamata Banerjee (; born 5 January 1955) is an Indian politician who is serving as the eighth and current List of chief ministers of West Bengal, chief minister of the States and union territories of India, Indian state of West Bengal since 20 ...

, to complete the flyover by February 2016 and allocated a budget of nearly but only about 60 percent of the work was completed. As of March 2015, IVRCL had a debt of and reported losses of . In December 2015, a consortium of banks that had lent to the company took over the company and it was banned from doing business in

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 ...

and several other

Indian states India is a federal union comprising 28 states and 8 union territories, with a total of 36 entities. The states and union territories are further subdivided into districts and smaller administrative divisions. History Pre-indepen ...

. On 30 March 2016, one day before the collapse, concrete was laid on the bridge. Just hours before the collapse, construction workers were reported to have heard a cracking noise from the

cantilever A cantilever is a rigid structural element that extends horizontally and is supported at only one end. Typically it extends from a flat vertical surface such as a wall, to which it must be firmly attached. Like other structural elements, a canti ...

Incident

At 12:40 pm

IST Ist or IST may refer to: Information Science and Technology * Bachelor's or Master's degree in Information Science and Technology * Graduate School / Faculty of Information Science and Technology, Hokkaido University, Japan * Graduate School ...

on 31 March 2016, the bridge collapsed, trapping many pedestrians and vehicles underneath. The incident took place at the busy

Rabindra Sarani People *Ravindra Jain (1944–2015), an Indian music composer and lyricist *Ravindra Mahajani, an Indian film actor *Ravindra Pushpakumara (b. 1975), a Sri Lankan cricketer *Ravindra Randeniya, a Sri Lankan actor and politician *Ravindra Khattree (b ...

–

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road crossing. 27 people were killed and at least 80 others were injured. More than 90 people had been pulled from the rubble, but as of 1 April 2016, over 100 people were still unaccounted for. The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) worked in relief operations with police and other security personnel . Many photographs and videos were quickly posted on social media platforms.

Aftermath

On 1 April 2016, the construction company IVRCL was charged with murder, under section 302 of the

Indian Penal Code The Indian Penal Code (IPC) is the official criminal code of India. It is a comprehensive code intended to cover all substantive aspects of criminal law. The code was drafted on the recommendations of first law commission of India established in ...

. The police detained five IVRCL officials in

and two in

, and sealed off IVRCL's local office in

. The firm called the collapse an "accident", with one IVRCL official describing it as an "

act of god In legal usage in the English-speaking world, an act of God is a natural hazard outside human control, such as an earthquake or tsunami, for which no person can be held responsible. An act of God may amount to an exception to liability in con ...

". The shares of the company fell 11.7% the day after the disaster. Sixty-two families living in buildings near the accident site were asked to vacate temporarily for the safe removal of collapsed debris. In a letter sent to

BSE BSE may refer to: Medicine * Bovine spongiform encephalopathy, also known as mad cow disease, a neurodegenerative disease of cattle * Breast self-examination Stock exchanges * Bahrain Stock Exchange, Bahrain * Baku Stock Exchange, Azerbaijan * B ...

, IVRCL claimed that the design of the flyover was done by a reputed consulting firm of Kolkata.

Potential causes

Anandapran Gupta, former head of the department of civil engineering at

IIT KGP Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (IIT Kharagpur) is a public institute of technology established by the Government of India in Kharagpur, West Bengal, India. Established in 1951, the institute is the first of the IITs to be established ...

stated that his investigating committee found defects in multiple aspects of the flyover construction including design, construction, raw materials and supervision. Biranchi Acharya, an experienced construction professional, claimed that the main cause was the failure of a pier cap which brought down two spans supported over it. Some flaws either in joints of pier cap or unwanted eccentric loading may have been responsible.

Reaction

The Chief Minister of

West Bengal West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fourt ...

, rushed to oversee the post-crash relief and rescue operation, and made a statement accusing the previous left-wing government for the disaster. The previous state government, headed by the Communist Party of India (M), stated that the portion of the flyover that collapsed was built during the current government's tenure. Minister of State for Urban Development,

Babul Supriyo Babul Supriyo (born 15 December 1970) is an Indian playback singer, live performer, television host, actor and politician who currently serves as Cabinet Minister of Information Technology and Electronics and Tourism of the Government of Wes ...

, remarked that the construction work of the flyover was carried on in an unscientific manner and "the state administration did not take any lesson even after the collapse of Ultadanga flyover three years ago". The legal advisor to IVRCL, Sheela Peddinti, said "The glass was shattered. It could have been a blast." The vice-president of the

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British Em ...

, Rahul Gandhi, visited the injured and the site of the accident. He refused to make any political statements. Later, he incidentally raised the issue at rallies and accused the ruling party,

Trinamool Congress The All India Trinamool Congress (English: All India Grassroots Congress; AITC), colloquially the Trinamool Congress ( TMC) is an Indian political party which is predominantly active in West Bengal. The party is led by Mamata Banerjee, the cur ...

of negligence.

References