Mumbai bridge collapse: BMC orders suspension of two engineers

Mumbai, Mar 15: A day after a bridge collapsed in Mumbai killing six people, the BMC, Mumbai's civic body, suspended two engineers and ordered a full-fledged departmental enquiry against them.

Executive Engineer AR Patil and Assistant Engineer SF Kakulte have been suspended as per reports.

Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation orders suspension for Executive Engineer AR Patil who supervised the structural audit work in 2017-18 and Assistant Engineer SF Kakulte who supervised the repair work in 2013-14. A full-fledged departmental enquiry be carried out against them, reported news agency ANI.

The BMC earlier today called for the structural audit report of the collapsed overbridge in Mumbai, which killed six people on Thursday evening, to be made public, and said that it appears as if the audit was "conducted an in an irresponsible and negligent manner".

The overbridge, located near Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus railway station, collapsed yesterday evening. The bridge was said to be under repair, but was still in use. The collapse took place around 7.30 pm -- the busiest hours of the evening. Even Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis had expressed concern over the fact that the authorities had already conducted a structural audit of the structure and found nothing wrong with it.

"It is apparent that structural audit report has failed to point out an impending failure. In spite of commissioning the report of bridge and spending public money on it, true condition of bridge was not brought out. The structural report should be made public," the the Brihanmumbai Corporation (BMC), Mumbai's civic body, said in its Preliminary Report.

"There is a prima facie reason to believe that the structural audit has been conducted an irresponsible and negligent manner. This tragedy could have been avoided if the structural audit had been done diligently," the reports further said, as per reports.

The Mumbai CST overbridge which collapsed yesterday was audited in 2016 and as per the report, the bridge was in good condition. The bridge was cleared by the audit company which was given the contract to conduct this audit report. The BMC says that the report was submitted by the audit department in 2018 after the beautification drive was completed.