Death toll in flyover collapse rises to 24; officials detained

Three more bodies were recovered from under the debris of the flyover that collapsed on to vehicles and street vendors here, taking the toll to 24 even as five officials of the firm that was building the structure have been detained.
Around 90 people were injured in the collapse and the condition of seven of them was stated to be "very critical".
Armymen along with Kolkata Police, disaster management team, NDRF and fire brigade personnel engaged in rescue work throughout the night, pulled out three more bodies from underneath the rubble of concrete, a police officer said today.
The number of people injured in the mishap, he said, was close to 90.

"Nobody alive has been recovered... Two mangled autorickshaws apart from a few other vehicles have been pulled out. One lorry is still stuck inside... Whether there is anybody trapped inside cannot be said," he said.
About 60-metre-long portion of the under-construction flyover collapsed yesterday afternoon on a congested road intersection here.

Five officials of the Hyderabad-based construction company IVRCL have been detained, Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar said.
"We have detained a few officials of the construction company. We are taking action against them," he said.
Kolkata Police had yesterday registered a case against the Hyderabad-based construction firm under sections 304, 308 and 407 of the IPC and sealed the local office of company engaged in the flyover's construction.

"It is nothing but God's act," claimed Panduranga Rao of the IVRCL Construction company engaged in the flyover's construction.
The West Bengal government has ordered a high-level probe into the incident that triggered a blame game with the opposition accusing the Mamata Banerjee government of callousness.
Meanwhile, a four-member police team from West Bengal today arrived in Hyderabad as part of its probe to question officials of IVRCL after the flyover it was constructing collapsed in Kolkata.
(REOPENS CAL4)
A day after an official of IVRCL dubbed the flyover
collapse as an "act of God", another official of the company today described it as an "accident".

"An act of God was just an expression only to describe that it is under no one's control", she told reporters in Hyderabad.
"We are surprised and extremely shocked. We are there to cooperate with the investigation, but investigation takes time", she said.
Showing a photograph of the mishap site published in a newspaper, she said that it looked like a site of bomb blast. There were various aspects which should be looked into.
Stating that same construction materials were used in building the ongoing flyover, she asked, "why did this happen? We are anxious to know the reasons".
Asked how long it would take to clear the debris from the area, a senior police officer said, that the main road crossing near Ganesh Talkies would hopefully be cleared during the day. But the rest like the 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.
The army rescue teams have been operating throughout the night along with the teams from civil defence, police and NRDF, trying to remove the debris from the affected area.

General Officer in Command of Army's Bengal area Lt Gen Rajeev Tewary is monitoring the progress of the Army teams closely.