Rescue operations underway at the site where a part of a portion of Vivekananda Flyover collapsed in Kolkata on March 31, 2016. (Photo: IANS)
Army on Friday said that it has lost hope of finding more survivors under the debris amid the massive rescue operation at the site of Kolkata flyover tragedy.
Police detained seven officials from a Hyderabad-based construction company contracted in 2007 to build the overpass, and sealed its Kolkata office. Two of them detained in Hyderabad and five in Kolkata, a report said. The accident resulted into the death of 24 people.
Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar, who paid a visit to the mishap site, told reporters “We have detained a few officials of the construction company. We are taking
action against them”.
Kolkata Police has registered a case against the Hyderabad-based construction firm IVRCL under sections 304, 308 and 407 of the IPC and sealed the local office of the company.
According to another senior police official, who spoke to PTI on condition of anonymity, about seven persons, injured in yesterday’s mishap, were in a “very critical condition”.
Asked when would the area be cleared off all the debris of concrete and iron girdles, the officer said, “the clearing at the main crossing (Ganesh Talkies crossings) will hopefully be over by today. But the rest like iron piers, iron pillars, broken concrete parts will be cleared in a step-by-step process.”
The other end of the Vivekananda flyover towards the KK Tagore Street, where the metal pier, holding the bridge, was completely damaged would be cut but “a planned engineering
plan is necessary for that”, he said.
“It’s a very very congested area with buildings so close to the flyover. And most of the buildings are very old. So we must keep in mind that in order to remove the damaged portions of the flyover another mishap does not take place,” he said.
Army jawans, NDRF along with city police’s DMG team, special teams of Kolkata Traffic Police, DC Central, DC South, CRP from the Old Mint camp were all engaged in a night-long
rescue operations.
Meanwhile, IVCRL officials while talking to media said that they are fully cooperating with the investigation and are clueless on ‘why the flyover collapsed”.
“We regret the loss of life, it’s an accident, our legal team is supporting the investigation,” they said.
(With Input From Agencies)
