Three dead, 34 injured as footover bridge collapses near CSMT Rly Stn in Mumbai

Mumbai: A footover bridge connecting the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus(CSMT) Railway Station's platform no 1 with the B T Lane collapsed on Thursday evening killing three and injuring 34, among which the medical condition of two wounded is said to be highly critical.

The injured were rushed to the nearby St George Hospital and Sion Hospital, the rescue team personnel said.The deceased who have been identified as Apoorva Prabhu (35),Ranjana Tambe (40),and  Zahid Shiraj Khan (32),were the employees of the G T Hospital located in the Fort area, a commercial hub which is having easy accessibility from the incident spot.

According to initial reports,the Disaster Control cell of the civic body Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), has stated the flooding of commuters in huge numbers on the footover bridge led to its collapse.The incident occurred at the peak hours when the office goers were in a rush to catch local trains.

The vehicular movement around the incident spot have been detoured towards Byculla and Dadar and the Mumbai Police has tweeted the road travelers to use other alternate routes.         

"Traffic has been diverted to Mahanagar Palika road towards Metro junction, due to the foot over bridge collapse near Anjuman school #TrafficUpdate" Mumbai police said in a tweet.

Earlier Mumbai police took to its official twitter handle to inform about the incident. 

"Foot overbridge connecting platform 1 north end with BT Lane near Times Of India building has collapsed. Injured persons are being shifted to hospitals. Traffic affected. Commuters to use alternate routes. Senior officers are on spot ." Mumbai Police tweeted.

The BMC officials, Fire Brigade personnel and the rescue team have reached the spot and operation to bring the situation under control is underway.Meanwhile Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has expressed grief over the incident. 

"Pained to hear about the FOB incident near TOI building in Mumbai. Spoke to BMC Commissioner and @MumbaiPolice officials and instructed to ensure speedy relief efforts in coordination with @RailMinIndia officials.", CM said in tweet.

A similar mishap in September 2017 at the sub-urban Elphinstone Road railway station had claimed 23 lives due to stampede. Eyebrows were raised even then as people criticized the governments move of building bullet trains instead of improving the existing infrastructure. (UNI)