Andheri bridge collapse: Alert motorman who prevented a tragedy to get Rs 5 lakh reward

Chandrashekhar B Sawant immediately stopped his train metres away from a place where part of a bridge had collapsed in suburban Andheri.

Mumbai has a new hero: motorman Chandrashekhar B Sawant. He averted a tragedy on Tuesday when he immediately stopped his train metres away from a place where part of a bridge had collapsed in suburban Andheri.

Commuters watch rescuers work at the site of a pedestrian bridge that collapsed at a train station in Mumbai on July 3, 2018. Part of a pedestrian bridge at a Mumbai train station collapsed Tuesday morning during heavy rains. (AP)

Sawant, who is called a motorman, was steering the Churchgate-bound 7.06am suburban train from Borivli when he saw a part of the bridge collapsing as he neared the Andheri railway station.

“I immediately applied emergency brakes and the train stopped a few metres from the spot where the bridge collapsed,” Sawant was quoted by news agency PTI as saying. The collapse was accompanied by a big thud sound of the falling debris.”

Railways minister Piyush Goyal applauded Sawant’s “quick thinking and timely action” and said he will get Rs 5 lakh as reward.

Five people were injured and local train services were suspended after the bridge collapsed near the eastern side of the Andheri railway station and part of it fell on railway tracks.

The bridge was built in 1971 and a safety audit in November 2017 found “nothing abnormal” about it.