Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi on Saturday met the injured people and families of those affected by the collapse of an under-construction flyover, here in the city of March 31.
After meeting with the injured at the state-run Calcutta Medical College & Hospital, Gandhi described it as a “tragedy”; but refused to be dragged into a controversy over the issue.
“There has been a tragedy here. I wanted to come here and give my support to the people who are injured. I came here to visit the injured. I don’t want to make any political statement,” he said when media personnel asked him about the role of the State government.
Gandhi is here in the city to campaign for his party and alliance partner, the Left Front for the upcoming Assembly polls scheduled next week onwards.
The Congress Vice President will address a rally in South 24 Parganas and later on at Bankura and Durgapur. Left Front candidates too are expected to be present in these ‘joint rallies’.
Poll Issue
Interestingly, Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee, has already taken up the flyover issue as a poll plank. Her attack has so far has been targeted towards the the Left Front. “Look at the work the Left has done. The infrastructure they set-up is crumbling down now and killing people,” she said at a poll rally yesterday.
Sanctioned in 2007, construction work on the Vivekananda Road flyover began in 2009 by Hyderabad-based IVRCL Ltd.
The Rs 166 crore project that had a length of over 2 km, has missed several deadlines. It was to connect the western parts of the city to the north. A 100 metre span had collapsed on March 31.
Rescue Operations
The death toll is said to have risen to 27 and nearly 90 people have been injured in the incident. Two days later, rescue operations are still on.
According to reports, the city police’s crime branch has arrested three employees of IVRCL that include their Kolkata operations in-charge.
The State government has on its part suspended two senior engineers of the Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA) – the implementing agency – who were over-seeing construction work.