Goa Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar today informed the state Legislative Assembly that he has asked the Director General of Police to find out whether any Goan was among the 22 people who went missing since the collapse of a British-era bridge at Mahad in Konkan region.
"On Goa-Mumbai road at Mahad a few vehicles have gone down the bridge which collapsed. I have asked Goa DGP to check whether fatalities include Goans," Parsekar told the House here.
"Till now there is no information about the Goans involved in the accident. Government has kept a constant watch. We are in constant touch. We will do whatever is required," the chief minister said.
Also, the Goa government is likely to audit strength of Portuguese-era bridges that were built and being used in the coastal state.
"There is a need to audit the strength of existing Goan bridges and roads. Most of the existing bridges were built during Portuguese time and they are still in use," Goa's Deputy Chief Minister Francis D'Souza told reporters outside the Assembly.
He said the incident at Mahad (in Raigad district) is "a wake up call for us to look at the state of affairs of our bridges".
"Once the audit is done we can also decide where we have to create new infrastructure," he said.
At least 22 people are missing since two Maharashtra state transport buses were washed away in swollen Savitri river due to collapse of the old bridge connecting Poladpur to Mahad in Maharashtra late last night.
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State PWD Minister Ramakrishna Dhavalikar said all the bridges in Goa were safe. "We conduct regular checks of these bridges after every six months," he said.
Dhavalikar said even the Portuguese-era bridges in the state were undergoing regular checks and found strong.
Reacting to the Mahad incident, he said, "whatever happened is unfortunate. I think it was a failure on the part of the department concerned there.
