Flyover collapse: Rahul Gandhi to visit Kolkata, meet victims' families

New Delhi: Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi will today visit Kolkata's Girish Park area, where the collapse of a flyover on Thursday led to the death of 24 people. Gandhi is likely to visit the hospital to meet the people injured due to the mishap and also express his solidarity with those who lost their lives. The state government had earlier announced an ex-gratia compensation of Rs. five lakh to next of kin of the victims and Rs. two lakh to gravely injured people. The Hyderabad-based construction company IVRCL, which was constructing the flyover, said that the unfortunate incident was an accident and maintained that it was beyond anyone's control. The military and NDRF teams, which were rushed to carry out relief and rescue efforts, used heavy earth movers and gas cutting paraphernalia to complete the operation. The rescue operations were completed yesterday.