After a road overbridge (ROB) collapsed on rail tracks in suburban Andheri amid heavy rains, Union minister Piyush Goyal on Tuesday called it an “unfortunate” incident. He also ordered an inquiry and said that the commissioner of rail safety will give a report in 15 days.
Railway minister Piyush Goyal reached the site of the incident to review the situation. Afterwards, he told reporters that the government will give Rs 1 lakh compensation to all the injured. All costs of their treatment will also be borne by the government. He also expressed regret over the unfortunate incident and said that a thorough probe will be carried out by the commissioner of railway safety.
(Also read: Mumbai live updates: Piyush Goyal says he has directed officials to speed up repair work).
The minister further said that Railways will carry out a joint safety audit of 445 such bridges in suburban Mumbai to prevent similar incidents in the future. Railways will conduct the audit of such Foot-over-bridges (FoB) along with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and it will be conducted under the leadership of experts from IIT Bombay, he added.
Five people were injured after the bridge collapsed in Andheri on Tuesday, the BMC said while adding that two of them were seriously hurt.
Train services of the Western Railway (WR) were stopped after the bridge, built in 1971, collapsed, a railway official said.
The Overhead Equipment (OHE) was also damaged and a team of engineers are working to restore services, Western Railways’ Chief Public Relations Officer Ravinder Bhakar told PTI.
With inputs from PTI