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Under-construction flyover, part of East West Corridor, collapses in north Bengal
An under-construction flyover that is a part of the East West Corridor connecting Porbandar in Gujarat and Silchar in Assam collapsed at Phansidewa about 20 km from Siliguri in north Bengal on Saturday morning. However, there were no casualties since the mishap occurred before dawn when there was no one nearby.
An under-construction flyover that is a part of the East West Corridor connecting Porbandar in Gujarat and Silchar in Assam collapsed at Phansidewa about 20 km from Siliguri in north Bengal on Saturday morning.
However, there were no casualties since the mishap occurred before dawn when there was no one nearby. “None was injured,” said Sanjay Das, inspector-in-charge of Phasidewa Police Station.
The flyover is a part of the 3,300-km corridor that passes through places like Islampur, Siliguri, Jalpaiguri and Alipurduar in north Bengal.
The district magistrate has ordered a probe after the collapse of 25-meter-long stretch of the flyover raised questions about the quality of work.
Darjeeling district magistrate Joyoshi Dasgupta said, “An enquiry has been ordered. I cannot comment immediately on what led to the collapse of a portion of the flyover. I am in touch with the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) officials.”
Darjeeling district Trinamool Congress president and state tourism minister Gautam Deb also said the NHAI has to look into reasons for the collapse.
“This is a part of the East West corridor. The NHAI is in charge of it. They have to look into why the mishap took place. I shall speak to them,” Deb said.
Some locals were quick to conclude why the flyover collapsed. “The flyover collapsed due to poor quality of work,” alleged Shiv Narayan Burman, a local resident.
“We are looking into the possible reasons,” said Suman Banerjee, an engineer with infrastructure company L&T which is building the flyover.
In March 31, 2016 the under-construction Vivekananda flyover at Burrabazar in the central business district of Kolkata collapsed killing 27 people.
