Mumbai bridge fall: No structural flaw found in audit

| | New Delhi

The investigations into the collapse of a road over bridge (ROB) on the railway tracks in Mumbai on Tuesday found that it was  inspected recently as in November, 2017 as part of a routine inspection of the RoBs after  the Elphinstone Bridge collapse.

“The audit was done in November, 2017 as a part of the routine inspection. No structural flaw was found in the audit,” said a senior Rail Ministry official. The structure was one of the 2,000 bridges and 550 ROBs that were thoroughly inspected last year.

All the bridges are inspected at least twice a year — before the monsoon and after the monsoon — the official said, adding that some of the structures are inspected more frequently, depending on their condition.

The railways had a total of 1,47,523 bridges in the country, including 2,870 ROBs, 3,422 FOBs, road underbridges (RUBs) and subways, as of April.  The railways have set a target of inspecting 10,000 bridges and 2,870 ROBs at least once over a period five years.

While it is not clear what led to the incident, the Commissioner Railway Safety (CRS), Western Circle has been entrusted with carrying out a probe.   The officials said after a foot overbridge (FOB) collapsed at the Elphinstone Road station in Mumbai in September last year, killing 23 people, all the FOBs in the Mumbai suburban area were inspected by the Western Railways and the Central Railways.

Railways Minister Piyush Goyal visited the accident site in the afternoon and said that he had ordered an inquiry by the Commissioner of Rail Safety whose report would have to be submitted within 15 days. Reportedly the Bridge belonged to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, but maintenance was under the railways’ jurisdiction.

Goyal said a joint safety audit will be conducted by the Railways, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and IIT-Bombay of the 445 ROBs, foot overbridges (FOBs) and bridges over the pipelines in Mumbai as part of efforts to improve safety of commuters.

“I have spoken to the director of IIT-Bombay and he has assured all cooperation. In the next six months, all the 445 ROBs, FOBs and other bridges going above water pipelines will be inspected and a joint safety audit will be carried out in association with the BMC as well,” Goyal said at the site of the incident.