Rajdharma: Mumbai bridge collapse: BMC and Raliways initiate the blame game

A road overbridge in Mumbai's suburban Andheri area collapsed on Tuesday morning following incessant rain. The incident brought to a halt the local train services that caused huge inconvenience to the commuters.

Five people were injured, two of them seriously, in the incident that took place at around 7.30 am. The tragedy could have been much bigger if Chandrashekhar Sawant, driver of a local train, hadn’t applied emergency brakes on time.

Hailing Sawant for his presence of mind, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal announced a reward of Rs. 5 lakh for him. After he saw the foot overbridge coming down, Sawant quickly applied the emergency brakes. It was his alertness that saved many lives.

The Gokhale road overbridge, built in 1971, collapsed near the eastern side of the railway station.

"I immediately applied emergency brakes and the train stopped a few metres from the spot where the bridge collapsed," Sawant was quoted by PTI as saying. "The collapse was accompanied by a big thud sound of the falling debris," he said