In Maharashtra, two persons were killed and ten persons were injured when a 40 metre pre-stressed concrete girder of an under construction Rail Over Bridge (ROB) collapsed along with adjacent pipe line and fell down on a Kalyan bound K-37 EMU local train which was passing under it at that point of time on Mulund–Thane suburban route, near Thane (neighbouring district of Mumbai) this morning at 10.55 a.m. The dead included the driver of the ill fated local train. Injured have been admitted in the civil hospital in Thane.
The Minister of Railways, Kumari Mamata Banerjee, in a special humanitarian gesture, has announced an ex-gratia payment to the victims of this unfortunate incident.. She announced an ex-gratia payment of Rs. 5 lakh to the next kin of each of dead and Rs. 1 lakh each to those with grievous injuries and Rs. 10 thousand each to those with minor injuries.
This ROB is owned by Thane Municipal Corporation and has been under construction under their supervision for quite some time by the contractors engaged by the Corporation.
Senior officials of Central Railway including General Manager and Divisional Railway Manager immediately rushed to the spot to supervise the rescue and relief operations. Restoration work on the affected portion has been immediately started with full steam and restoration of traffic on two of the lines is expected to be resumed by this midnight and on the remaining two lines by tomorrow morning. The details of the incident are also available on the website of Central Railway www.centralrailwayonline.