WB govt asks Metro railway to temporarily stop work near Majerhat bridge

The Metro Railways has been asked to stop work near Majerhat bridge till a committee probing its collapse gives its report, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said Thursday.

The PWD chief engineer has given a report which said that Metro railway construction work has created many problems at the place, she said.

"The state government has asked Metro Railways to stop its work near Majerhat bridge temporarily till the high-powered committee headed by Chief Secretary Moloy Dey submits its report on the collapse. The committee has been asked to submit its report within a week," she told a press conference after a review meeting at the state secretariat.

 

Noting that Metro Railways had been working there for the last nine years, she said, "The piling work caused big vibration. It might have affected the bridge. The high-powered committee will look into it."

Soon after a portion of the bridge collapsed on Tuesday, Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL), executing the construction of the Joka-BBD Bag metro corridor passing through the vicinity of Majherhat bridge, had said that "there is no connection of metro construction" with the incident.

RVNL Chief Project Manager/Line A K Roy had said the collapse of Majerhat bridge girder over canal portion is a "mid-span failure of RCC girder which are very old and of longer length of approximately 40 metres."

"There is no relationship of Metro project construction with this mid-span failure of RCC girder of the bridge. Intact condition of piers on both ends are clear indication of this," he had said in a statement.

Asked to comment on the RVNL statement, Banerjee said, "They are so smart. They have immediately issued press statement."

She said that bridge inspection and monitoring committees have been formed under PWD, irrigation and KMDA to inspect bridges in the state under those departments.

Three persons were killed in the collapse of a portion of the Majherhat bridge in Alipore area, which runs over the Majerhat Railway station and connects the city centre with the heavily populated Behala, vast areas of the south west suburbs and neighbouring South 24 Parganas district.