What Caused Bridge Collapse in Kolkata

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Thursday afternoon, Kolkata’s Vivekananda road flyover which was under construction collapsed. Media reports confirm the death count to be 24 while 100 are estimated to be still under the debris.

Bridge Collapse Update So Far

  1. A case of culpable homicide against IVRCL by West Bengal Police.
  2. Police has detained 7 people of Hyderabad based firm IVRCL so far. Their Kolkatta office is also sealed.
  3. Two senior engineers of Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA) has been suspended by West Bengal government.
  4. KMDA is IVRCL’s joint venture partner in the project.
  5. Both Trinmul Congress and CPM are blaming is other for the tragedy.
  6. In another incident, Trinmul Congress MLA Nirmal Maji allegedly stopped blood donation camp organised by CMP supported SFI and DYFI, student youth wings.
  7. An senior IVRCL manager has called this disaster an ACT OF GOD, attracting nation wide condenmation.

Here are few analysis / observations

  1. Bridge foundation was laid in 2008 and has been under construction since February 2009.
  2. Till now only 60% work has been completed.
  3. According to reports government has given a deadline to IVRCL to complete the project by February 2016 so that Mamta Banerjee can inaugurate the fly over before state elections..
  4. According to Mr. Joy Sen, architecture faculty and head of architecture & regional planning department at IIT-Kharagpur, it could be due to the delay in completion of the project. According to him, if such constructions are delayed, material which gets exposed to weather could become weak over the period of time.
  5. He further added, tender for such projects should be given to best experienced instead of one who bid lowest price.
  6. Concretisation was done on Wednesday. Hence cements was still not dry and was very heavy. Steel girders were not strong enough to handle that load.
  7. According to  Mr. Arup Guha Niyogi, a professor at Jadavpur University’s civil engineering – “It seems there may be some problems related to stability. There may be insufficient steel girders used or faulty placement of steel girder could lead to this collapse.”
  8. The construction company has denied any wrongdoing or use of inferior quality material. Instead they asked to investigate possibilities of a bomb blast.

Horrific Pics of Bridge Collapse in Kolkata

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