The 2018 Kolkata bridge collapse refers to the collapse of the Majerhat Bridge, in the city of
Kolkata, India
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, commer ...
, on 4 September 2018.
The bridge collapsed at around 4:45 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 ...
), resulting in the death of three people injuries to at least 25 others.
Majerhat Bridge
Majerhat Bridge is located at Majerhat,
Alipore
Alipore (Pron:ˌɑ:lɪˈpɔ:) is a neighbourhood in south Kolkata, in Kolkata district, in the Indian state of West Bengal.
It is flanked by the Tolly Nullah to the north, Bhowanipore to the east, the Diamond Harbour Road to the west and New ...
, a neighbourhood of South
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 ...
.
It was a major arterial road (Diamond Harbour Road) in the area connecting the
southern suburbs to other parts of the city via
Behala
Behala is a locality of South West Kolkata, in the Indian state of West Bengal. Behala is a part of Kolkata Municipal Corporation area. It is broadly spread across Ward Nos. 118, 119, 120, 121, 122, 123, 124, 125, 126, 127, 128, 129, 130 ...
.
It is also part of
National Highway 12.
Majerhat railway station
Majerhat railway station is a Kolkata Suburban Railway Station on the Budge Budge Branch line with an approximate distance from the Sealdah railway station. It is under the jurisdiction of the Eastern Railway zone of Indian Railways. Majerha ...
is located beside the bridge. There is also nearby construction for
Kolkata Metro Line 3
Kolkata Metro Line 3 or the Purple Line is a line of the Kolkata Metro. The stretch from Joka to Taratala of the line was inaugurated on 30 December 2022. The route spans from Joka in the south, to Esplanade in the north with an extension ...
; a planned station for Majerhat. The bridge crosses the
Indian Railways
Indian Railways (IR) is a statutory body under the ownership of Ministry of Railways, Government of India that operates India's national railway system. It manages the fourth largest national railway system in the world by size, with a tot ...
Sealdah South local rail network from
Sealdah
Sealdah is a neighbourhood of Central Kolkata in Kolkata district in the Indian state of West Bengal.
Etymology
Jackals (''sheal'' in Bengali) howled around Sealdah. Antiquarians identify it as Shrigaldwipa (Jackal Island). Nearby Beliaghata wa ...
to
Budge Budge
Budge Budge () is a town and a municipality of the South 24 Parganas district in the Indian States and territories of India, state of West Bengal. It is situated on the eastern banks of the Hooghly River. It is a part of the area covered by the ...
as well as the
Kolkata Circular Railway
Kolkata Circular Railway, also known as the Kolkata Chakra Rail (), is a long railway loop line operated by the Sealdah division of the Eastern Railway zone of Indian Railways, encircling the city of Kolkata.
Services
The line begins and term ...
lines.
Background
There has been concern around the time of the accident that in Kolkata, and in wider India, proper road maintenance was not being undertaken.
This incident was the third bridge collapse in Kolkata in six years.
On 4 March 2013, part of a flyover in
Ultadanga
Ultadanga is one of the most crowded junctions in Kolkata. The place is located at the north-eastern fringe of the city and marks the limit of Kolkata district. Prominent places in Ultadanga are Telenga Bagan and Muchi Bazar.
Etymology
Ultad ...
had also collapsed.
On 31 March 2016, part of an under-construction flyover
had collapsed in central Kolkata's busy
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 ...
area.
27 people had died in the tragedy, leaving 80 people gravely injured.
There had been reported concerns about Majerhat Bridge itself. At the time of the collapse the bridge was apparently over 50 years old.
In 2010, the Majerhat Bridge had undergone repairs for subsidence.
An audit in 2016 flagged the bridge as unsafe.
Concerns had been raised in 2018 by police, commuters and nearby residents stemming from visible cracks appearing in the structure.
Incident
The bridge caved in around 4:45 PM. Videos from the locality showed a portion of the bridge resting on the street below including at least nine vehicles, including a minibus, stuck on it.
Deaths
* Prabir Kumar Dey, a resident of Murshidabad, and a worker on the
Kolkata Metro Line 3
Kolkata Metro Line 3 or the Purple Line is a line of the Kolkata Metro. The stretch from Joka to Taratala of the line was inaugurated on 30 December 2022. The route spans from Joka in the south, to Esplanade in the north with an extension ...
project.
* Soumen Bag, a resident of
Behala
Behala is a locality of South West Kolkata, in the Indian state of West Bengal. Behala is a part of Kolkata Municipal Corporation area. It is broadly spread across Ward Nos. 118, 119, 120, 121, 122, 123, 124, 125, 126, 127, 128, 129, 130 ...
's Silpara.
* Gautam Mondal, a cook employed in the nearby
metro construction project.
Rescue efforts
The rescue effort was started by the
Kolkata Police
The Kolkata Police Force (KPF) is one of the two presidency police forces of the Indian state of West Bengal. Kolkata Police has the task of policing the metropolitan area (apart from Bidhannagar and New Town, which are served by the Bidhannag ...
, an
Indian Army
The Indian Army is the land-based branch and the largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Army, and its professional head is the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), who is a four- ...
unit from
Fort William and five special disaster management teams of the
NDRF after the mishap.
Injured people were sent to nearby SSKM, CMRI and Vidyasagar hospitals for treatment.
Aftermath
After the collapse,
Eastern Railways
The Eastern Railway (abbreviated ER) is among the 19 zones of the Indian Railways. Its headquarters is at Fairley Place, Kolkata and comprises four divisions: , , , and . Each division is headed by a Divisional Railway Manager (DRM). The name o ...
suspended train services via
Majerhat railway station
Majerhat railway station is a Kolkata Suburban Railway Station on the Budge Budge Branch line with an approximate distance from the Sealdah railway station. It is under the jurisdiction of the Eastern Railway zone of Indian Railways. Majerha ...
on the
Kolkata Circular Railway
Kolkata Circular Railway, also known as the Kolkata Chakra Rail (), is a long railway loop line operated by the Sealdah division of the Eastern Railway zone of Indian Railways, encircling the city of Kolkata.
Services
The line begins and term ...
and
Sealdah-Budge Budge lines.
Widespread road traffic disruption ensued as the bridge was a major route for vehicles moving between north and south Kolkata.
The Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee asked
Chief Secretary Moloy Kumar De to hold an investigation committee into the collapse.
She had noted that 20 bridges in the city were at risk of collapse.
A Times of India article on 7 September 2018 noted that the Public Works Department has admitted that urgent repairs had not been carried out properly, it was noted that patchwork repairs were carried out on the bridge, adding layers of bitumen, and therefore weight, rather than a thorough repair.
The collapse led to a rising distrust among the public regarding the safety of bridges in India.
The safety of bridges in
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 ...
has further come under scrutiny, as there have been 3 bridge collapses in September 2018 alone.
Preliminary results of investigations suggest that pollution and poor maintenance contributed to the bridge collapse.
Accusations that Metro construction had led to bridge collapse were felt to be unfounded.
There have been reports that repairs were hastily completed with claims that "a month's work was done in one night".
The state public works department (PWD) has undertaken a complete tear down of the old bridge and reconstruction of a new bridge at the same location and is aiming to commission the new bridge in November 2020. The new bridge was opened on 4 December 2020. It was named the Jai Hind Bridge after the
Jai Hind
Jai Hind (, , ) is a salutation and slogan that originally meant "Victory to Hindustan", and in contemporary colloquial usage often means "Long live India" or "Salute to India". Coined by Champakaraman Pillai and used during India's independenc ...
slogan used by
Subhas Chandra Bose
Subhas Chandra Bose ( ; 23 January 1897 – 18 August 1945
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*) was an Indian nationalist whose defiance of British authority in India made him a hero among Indians, but his wartime alliances with Nazi Germany and Imperia ...
, commemorating his 125th birthday anniversary.
Reactions
*
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 ...
,
Chief Minister of West Bengal
The Chief Minister of West Bengal is the representative of the Government of India in the state of West Bengal and the head of the executive branch of the Government of West Bengal. The chief minister is head of the Council of Ministers and ap ...
– said after the accident that the priorities are relief and rescue with the investigation commencing later. She also announced a compensation of to the family of each deceased, and each to the injured.
*
Narendra Modi
Narendra Damodardas Modi (; born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician serving as the 14th and current Prime Minister of India since 2014. Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Parliament from ...
,
Prime Minister of India
The prime minister of India (IAST: ) is the head of government of the Republic of India. Executive authority is vested in the prime minister and their chosen Council of Ministers, despite the president of India being the nominal head of the ...
– tweeted that the loss of lives in the collapse is deeply unfortunate.
*
Rajnath Singh
Rajnath Singh (; born 10 July 1951) is an Indian politician serving as the Defence Minister of India. He is currently the Deputy Leader of the House Lok Sabha. He is the former President of Bharatiya Janata Party. He has previously served as t ...
,
Union Home Minister
The Minister of Home Affairs (or simply, the Home Minister, short-form HM) is the head of the Ministry of Home Affairs of the Government of India. One of the senior-most officers in the Union Cabinet, the chief responsibility of the Home Minist ...
– stated that the bridge collapse incident in Kolkata is extremely tragic.
* The
Rail Vikas Nigam Limited
Rail Vikas Nigam Limited is an Indian public sector undertaking which works as the construction arm of the Ministry of Railways for project implementation and transportation infrastructure development. It was incorporated in 2003 to meet the cou ...
project manager for the nearby
Kolkata Metro Line 3
Kolkata Metro Line 3 or the Purple Line is a line of the Kolkata Metro. The stretch from Joka to Taratala of the line was inaugurated on 30 December 2022. The route spans from Joka in the south, to Esplanade in the north with an extension ...
construction works, has denied the metro construction led to the bridge collapse.
See also
*
Kolkata flyover collapse
On 31 March 2016, a steel span of the under-construction Vivekananda Road Overpass, flyover in the Girish Park neighbourhood of Kolkata, India, collapsed. 27 people died and 50 more were injured in the accident.
Background
The construction f ...
*
2010 Commonwealth Games footbridge collapse in Delhi
References
{{Disasters in India in 2018
2018 disasters in India
Kolkata bridge collapse
Bridge disasters in India
Construction accidents
Disasters in West Bengal
2010s in Kolkata
September 2018 events in India