Podcast | Mumbai Bridges Are Falling Down Again, Who Is to Blame?

After Elphinstone tragedy Mumbai had yet another bridge-related incident. Is it faulty urban city planning? Tune in!

At least 6 people died and 30 got injured in a bridge that collapsed near CST station in Mumbai.

(Photo: The Quint)

29 September, 2017 — that was the date when the Elphinstone stampede in Mumbai, left at least 23 people dead and 39 others injured.

15 March, 2019, at least 6 people died and 30 are got injured in the same city of Mumbai. Two years apart the reason behind the incidents remain the same — infrastructure and a callous state government.

And that’s what we’re talking about in this edition of The Big Story podcast — how do we prevent repetitions of these incidents. Tune in!

In the first place, it was a bridge too narrow to accommodate the footfall of passengers traveling by local trains, which led to a stampede. And in the incident from yesterday, a foot overbridge collapsed near the CST local train station — a bridge that was audited and declared safe just six months prior to the incident.

Now the Mumbai Police said registered an FIR against concerned officials of Central Railway and BMC under section 304A (Causing death by negligence) of IPC at the Azaad Maidan Police Station. All the condolences have come in from the government but beyond this standard reaction, the basic question to address is, what does a metropolis like Mumbai have to do to its existing structures to accommodate the changing demographies?

Rishi Agarwal who is an urban planner, said simple measures could have prevented the incident.

“This particular FOB has no roof, which means that during Mumbai’s monsoon, a lot of water accumulates, which leads to erosion and a lot of damage to the structure and makes it even weaker. This is one of the bridges which has very heavy pedestrian use, so simple measures like putting a roof over it, would elongate its life or reduce its damage but it’s a dysfunctional city as far as governance goes. The people are not bothered fundamentally and no one is bothering to change the politics of the city as well.”

He also put the blame on BMC and Maharashtra government.

“Mumbai has been facing failed governance for such long now, that I don’t think it’s even an issue for discussion anymore. People have internalised it and take it as the new normal, and just go about with their lives.”

Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis announced an ex gratia of Rs 5 lakh for the families of the deceased, and a compensation of Rs 50,000 for the injured. He also ordered a probe.

But that is besides the point right now. In fact, discussing the faultline is important because there haven't only been two bridge collapses in Mumbai, but SEVEN in all since 2015 under Chief Minister Devendre Fadnavis' regime. These are the other cases:

• 2015: A kachcha bridge commonly used by two-wheeler vehicles in Malad west collapsed
• July 2018: Part of a bridge collapsed on Mumbai’s Andheri railway tracks on 3 July 2018, halting train services in the area.
• October 2018: First, a woman was injured at the Elphinstone Road station after a ceiling tile from a foot overbridge fell on her head. The very next day, a 67-year-old man was injured after a portion of a foot overbridge at the Charni Road station fell.
• October 2018 again: A portion of a foot overbridge on Sion-Panvel Highway collapsed.

If you add up the number of casualties, nearly 40 have died in seven bridge collapses in the past five years.

Some of the details we know about this incident are that eyewitnesses cited by NDTV said that the overbridge was being used despite repair-work being undertaken on it on Thursday morning. The deceased have been identified as Apoorva Prabhu (35), Anjana Tambe (40), Bhakti Shinde (40), Zahid Shiraj Khan (32), Tapendra Singh (28) and Mohan — two of the women were nurses of GT hospital.

Now the whole matter is a question of responsibility – but will this incident also die down eventually like the Elphinstone tragedy without any accountability until another such incident occurs?