The Ministry of Railways has constituted a four-member high-level committee to probe the cause of the collapse of an under-construction railway bridge in Mizoram’s Aizawl district. So far 22 people have died in this accident. The committee has been asked to submit its inquiry report within a month.
The names of these four-member committee include BP Awasthi of RDSO, Dr. Dipti Ranjan Sahu of IIT Delhi, Sharad Kumar Agarwal of IRICN and Sandeep Sharma, Chief Bridge Engineer of NF Railway.
The Works-I Branch of Railway Board will be the model branch for functioning of the Committee and submission of reports for consideration by Railway Board, implementation of the recommendation of the Committee and all related issues. Twenty-two people were killed and three others were injured when an under-construction railway bridge collapsed in Bairabi-Sairang near Aizawl on Wednesday. On Thursday, four dead bodies were taken out from the debris under the rescue operation. However, a laborer is still feared missing.
All the victims were residents of Malda in West Bengal. During this incident 26 laborers were present at the spot. The Railways said that the bridge collapsed due to the fall of Gallantry on the under-construction bridge. The Prime Minister has announced Rs 2 lakh to the next of kin of those killed in the accident and Rs 50,000 to the injured. At the same time, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav has promised to give 10 lakh rupees to the dead and 50 thousand rupees to the injured as compensation.
