MUMBAI: Union Minister for Railways Piyush Goyal on Tuesday announced a joint audit of all the 445 Rail Over Bridges (ROBs), Foot Over Bridges (FOBs) and structures on stormwater drains clogging the drains on Mumbai's suburban railway network.
The joint audit to be conducted by IIT Powai, the Railways and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) would be completed within six months, the minister said while speaking to newspersons at the crash site of the Andheri FOB.
"The audit will examine whether there was any flaw in the structure, construction flaws or any further need for improving the structural stability," the minister said adding that the repairs and strengthening of these FOBs, ROBs will be taken up on mission mode.
Commissioner of Rail Safety has been directed to conduct a probe into the incident and submit his report within 15 days, he said."I've spoken to IIT Bombay Director Devang Kakkad who has agreed to head the audit team," the minister said and added that the Andheri FOB was constructed about 40 years ago and was a cantilever design, which was declared safe for use after the last structural audit done on November 12, 2017.
The minister also disclosed that a total budget of Rs 65,000 crore has been allocated to improve the suburban railway network. The amount includes sharing from centre and state government, he said. Goyal also announced Rs 5 lakh reward to motorman Chandrashekhar Sawant for saving lives of passengers by applying emergency brakes to the Churchgate bound slow local just as he saw the bridge collapsing in front of him. Sawant will be felicitated by the minister at some appropriate occasion later, said railway sources.
The minister also disclosed that 500 staff that include railway personnel, BMC, Fire brigade and government officials are toiling to restore normalcy in suburban services. Besides them railway experts from Delhi and Lucknow and Central Railways have joined the investigation and restoring the services, he added. Goyal also announced Rs 1 lakh adhoc compensation to the injured in the Andheri FOB collapse.
The Railways would bear all the medical expenses of the injured who have been admitted to nearby Nanavati and R N Cooper Hospitals, he said. Refusing to be drawn in the blame game, he said that the priority of the railways was to restore full normalcy in suburban rail services by today morning. The city BJP chief Ashish Shelar had put the blame on the BMC, which is controlled by the Shiv Sena, while Mayor Vishwanath Mahadeshwar had said that the FOB was built and maintained by the Railways.