ROB collapse: Rahul slams BMC, Maha Govt

Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday led the Opposition’s charge in slamming the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and the Maharashtra Government for the collapse of civic governance in Mumbai.

Hours after the heavy rain ravaged the metropolis and a portion of a Road Over Bridge (ROB) near the Andheri station near Andheri railway station injuring five persons, Gandhi tweeted: “The streets are flooded, citizens stranded, bridges collapsing..... Civic governance has collapsed. My thoughts are with the citizens of Mumbai. Stay safe!”.

Maharashtra’s former chief minister and senior Congress leader Ashok Chavan charged that the BJP-led Maharashtra government and Shiv Sena-led Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporationh (BMC) were playing with the lives of the people of Mumbai, by blaming each other.

“It is rather unfortunate that a pedestrian portion of ROB collapsed on the railway tracks. Though they are squarely responsible for the incident, the state government and BMC are blaming each other for the mishap. In the process, they are playing with the lives of Mumbaikars,” he said.

Chavan said that though the Railway Minister Piyush Goyal had announced after the September 29, 2017 stampede at Elphinstone Road station in which 22 people were killed that safety audit of all pedestrian bridge would be carried out, no such audit of the bridge that collapsed on Tuesday had been done.

“The Government did not learn any lessons from the Elphinstone Road station stampede. From today’s mishap, it has once again established that the Government’s priority should be to increase the safety of Mumbai suburban commuters and not bullet train,” Chavan said.

NCP’s Mumbai unit chief Sachin Aher said that the Railways and the BMC should share the responsibility for the mishap. “Our demand is that the Government institute a high-level inquiry into this man-made disaster.  “On one hand, the Narendra Modi government talks about Smart city and bullet train, while on the other chief minister Devendra Fadanavis talks about bringing hyperloop technology to Maharashtra to reduce the time taken for 200 km travel between Mumbai to Pune to 25 minutes. But the Centre and State government have chosen to neglect the need to improve Mumbai suburban railway network”.

Meanwhile, a blame game was witnessed between the Railways and BMC, with each of the agencies holding the other responsible for the mishap.

Mumbai Mayor Vishwanath Mahadeshwar held the Railways responsibility for the mishap. “The responsibility of maintaining the Gokhale bridge connection Andheri (east) and Andheri (west) lies with the Railway. I hold the Railways squarely responsible for the mishap”.

Minutes after the mishap, the Western Railway laid the blame at the BMC’s door when it issued the first press release on the mishap at 9.56 am. “ Part of BMC's Road Over Bridge, repeat ROB, collapsed on rly tracks near Andheri Station of Western Rly, towards Vile Parle on South end at about 7.30 am today,” the press release read.

However, Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and Education Minister Vinod Tawde refrained from indulging in blame game.  

“It is not proper to engage in blame game What has happened is a serious issue, there are several agencies which are working for people,” Fadnavis said said.

Education Minister Vinod Tawde, who is also the Guardian Minister of Mumbai Suburban district, said: “We are elected representatives working for people.  We have to help people and not engage in blame game.”

In a related development,  senior RTI activist and social worker Anil Galgali said that one of the major problem that Mumbai faced was the multiplicity of organisations and utility services. “We have to look at Mumbai and Mumbai Metropolitan Region in totality. Within Mumbai and MMR there are more than 45 to 50 different agencies, we need a combined authority to ensure coordination,” Galgali said.

Meanwhile, Bollywood personalities also took to social media to air their opinion on the issue. “Andheri bridge collapse is yet another reminder of how pathetic Mumbai’s infrastructure is. For a city that gives so much to the exchequer, we deserve better, if not best. #shame,” Actor-filmmaker Farhan Akhtar tweeted.

 “Love how flyovers n bridges keep falling in our country..can they stop making money from this n actually think of the people who can n do get hurt?? make a structure strong enough like you were paid for..govt needs to stop screwing lives..  #andheribridgecollapse,” actress Esha Gupta tweeted

 “Matter closed! Get back to work Mumbai, while we get back to not working and filling our pockets with money. And dont you dare talk of corruption or black money. We are not corrupt. Didn't you hear? Black money is now declared as white money in our great nation! So don't complain!  There is no corruption!!!,” senior actress s Renuka Shahane wrote on Facebook.

 Actress Shraddha Kapoor took to her Instagram account and shared a video story of the Andheri bridge collapse site.