Gokhale bridge collapse: Probe report blames Rail staff

Corrosion and dumping of matter by BMC resulted in weakening of the bridge.

A railway probe report has pinned the blame for the partial collapse of a Road Over Bridge in Andheri earlier this month on both railway and civic officials.

 

Heavy corrosion and the piling of additional load of cables, paver blocks etc by the BMC have been blamed for the weakening of the Gokhale bridge. The preliminary inquiry report by Sushil Chandra, Commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS), Western Circle attributed the mishap to “failure of Railway staff and others”.

  

“The accident occurred due to heavy corrosion and pitting of cantilever steel brackets supporting the pathway, resulting in thinning down of section,” stated the report.

The report was submitted to the Western Railway (WR) authorities yesterday. In a front-page report on July 5, Mumbai Mirror had reported that a WR bridge inspector had detected corrosion on the 47-year-old bridge two months ago, but the report was never sent to the BMC.

A part of the Gokhale ROB collapsed on July 3, killing a pedestrian Asmita Katkar, injuring four others, and crippling the movement of trains on the Western line. Railway Minister Piyush Goyal ordered a safety audit of over bridges and other railway infrastructure in the city by a joint team of WR, BMC and the IIT Bombay.

Goyal had set yesterday as the deadline for submission of the report.

Blaming the civic body for overloading the bridge, the report says, “The failure of Road Over Bridge pathway was contributed by the additional load of various cables, sand, paver blocks, etc provided by the municipal corporation without prior permission from Western Railway. These additional loads were not considered at the time of original design.”

WR officials said they would wait for the final report before taking any punitive action. “It is the preliminary report by CRS. We are waiting for final report and are ready to answer all queries. Once the final report is submitted, we will definitely take appropriate action against those responsible,” said Ravinder Bhakar, chief public relations officer of WR.

  

However, BMC officials were unwilling to accept their share of the blame. A senior BMC official, who did not wish to be named, said, “We have not gone through the report yet. But we don’t think the additional load of wires and cables was the prime reason. We will present our side during a detailed probe.”