Eastern Railway produces letter to claim that Mamata govt was warned of Majherhat bridge condition

While West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and state Urban Development Minister Firhad Hakim are indirectly blaming a metro railway project for the recent collapse in Kolkata, which claimed three lives, officials of the Eastern Railway have said that they had alerted the state about the bridge's condition, 39 days before it collapsed.

The state government also claimed that it did not have a fair idea about the bridge's health,

Producing a letter, which was written to the Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA) on July 27, as a proof, Eastern Railway claimed that it had informed the statutory planning and development authority about the poor condition of Majherhat rail over bridge and asked to take an immediate action.

"On July 21, Eastern Railway carried out an inspection drive of the bridge as there are railway tracks underneath the bridge and we detected few serious structural damages in the bridge," a senior railway official told IBNS.

"Deputy Chief Engineer (WS) of Eastern Railway, Sujit Kumar, wrote to the Superintending Engineer (South Circle, GAP Sector) of KMDA on July 27 informing him of the poor condition of the bridge and suggesting to repair the structure immediately," the official added.

IBNS has accessed a copy of the letter where it was mentioned that the condition of RCC beam of Majherhat rail over bridge (ROB No. B/11) which supported utilities services were not in good condition and it required suitable replacement in programmed manner at earliest.

"You are requested for your preparedness for shifting of utilities by your end as well as the work will have to be carried out in traffic and power block of Railway," the letter read.

"The nearby span towards Mominpur of the same ROB over existing drain (which has collapsed) found visible deflection towards Sealdah end and this needs a complete inspection from your side and necessary action thereof," the letter clarified.

A senior official of Eastern Railway said that they had received no response from either KMDA or state Public Works Department (PWD) against the letter.

"We did not receive any reply from the state government against the alert," the official said.

However, state Urban Development Minister, Firhad Hakim, denied to comment on the matter.

"As Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has constituted a high level committee to probe the reason of the bridge collapse and an investigation is currently underway into the incident, I don't think it is the right time to react on the issue," Firhad Hakim told IBNS.

Earlier on Sep 4 evening, a nearly 40-metre block of southwest Kolkata's Majherhat rail over bridge collapsed, leaving three persons dead and at least 25 others injured.

Since the incident took place, Mamata Banerjee and her ministers have been claiming that heavy vibration, which was produced by under-construction Joka-BBD Bag Metro project nearby, might have weakened the bridge's structure and led to the collapse.

Metro railway, however, cleared that its project was not responsible behind the disaster as its construction work at the site was completed one year ago.

A copy of the letter made available by Eastern Railway

(Reporting by Deepayan Sinha)