Gokhale bridge in Andheri, which connects the East and the West, collapsed on Tuesday morning at around 7:30 AM. It is said that the bridge was under the possession of the municipal corporation (BMC), and the responsibility to maintain and repair the bridge was handed to the railways.
It has now come to notice that, back in 2011, BMC has sanctioned a cost for the repair and permitted the Western Railway to conduct a check and the operation, and ever since then, the corporation has made no record of the maintenance and the old files have not been revised.
Now that the incident has happened, officials, like every year have started the blame game. Authorities from the municipal corporation say that their respective department does not have the right to repair or maintain pedestrian bridges close to the railway boundaries. Hence, after sanctioning the amount, the responsibility was handed over to the railway administration to do the needful.
Talking about the same, Chief Engineer Shitlaprasad Kori from the Municipal Corporation, said that the old records were searched during the investigation, and it is now clear that the railway officials have not done their job. He further added by saying that the department was given the funds but had not used it well and it shows today in the amount of work they have done regarding the repair.
Today’s incident has caused a lot of trouble to the commuters. A team of nearly 200 people from the railways, BMC, and the rescue departments, have been working at the spot to clear the debris, iron rods and the overhead wires. Cranes and machines have been taken from the metro railway to lift Iron beams. Schedule on the western line was disrupted and services were cancelled in the morning. Officials present at the location have mentioned that the debris will be cleared soon and the services will resume in the next few hours.
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