Gujarat To Mumbai: Deadliest Bridge Collapses In Indian History That Killed Hundreds Of People

Recently a suspension bridge collapsed in Gujarat where at least 141 people lost their lives and many were injured. But this isn¡¯t a first time the country has witnessed such a shocking incident. Here is a list of some deadly bridge collapses in India:

Damanganga river bridge collapsed in 2003

TOI

In August 2003, total of 30 people including 28 school children lost their lives while many were injured after 300-metre-long iron bridge over the Damanganga river in the Union territory of Daman connecting Moti Daman to Nani Daman collapsed in Daman and Diu.

According to the TOI report, One Maruti van, ten motorcycles, and three auto-rickshaws were fished out. The river was 40 feet deep where the bridge collapsed. The 90-metre collapsed portion of the bridge was without any columns and was made of iron as no foundation could be built due to improper soil conditions. The rest of the bridge, which was built with RCC, was still intact.

¡°The bridge was constructed in 1987 and was in use till then. The PWD department undertook its repair in 2001 and spent nearly Rs 2 crore. Soon after it was opened for public use it collapsed,¡± Tandel added. He is a member of the committee formed of kin of the victims.

Bihar bridge collapsed on a train in 2006

PTI

In 2006 over 30 including women and children lost their lives and over 20 people were wounded after a 150-year-old bridge due to poor maintenance fell on a coach of a Howrah-Jamalpur Superfast passenger train in Bhagalpur, Bihar. According to many reports, the bridge was abandoned a few months before the tragedy and two arches had already been demolished authorities were in the process of pulling the bridge down but trains still continued passing through and the day of the tragedy Express halted just ahead of the bridge and approached the station, causing its pillars to shake. The bridge's pier and the arch ultimately caved in, killing passengers. After the incident, Two railway engineers supervising the dismantling of the bridge had been suspended and cases were registered against them for their alleged lapses.

Darjeeling bridge collapsed in 2011

AFP

In October 2011, more than 30 people died including 19 women and three children, and over 100 people were injured after an old wooden footbridge collapsed under the weight of more than 150 people who were at the bridge to attending a five-day cultural festival organised by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) at Bijanbari in Darjeeling. Officials say the victims fell at least 70ft (21m) into the fast-flowing Rangeet Khola river.

According to reports the month before the incident the bridge had been weakened by the magnitude 6.9 earthquake and this is the reason the bridge collapsed when a large number of people gathered on it.

Arunachal Pradesh suspension footbridge collapsed in 2011

Nagaland Post

In 2011, around 30 people have lost their lives, most of them children of age group 10 to 15 years and some elderly after a suspension footbridge collapsed due to overload at Seppa town in East Kameng district of Arunachal Pradesh. According to various reports, a group of children with some elderly went to the bridge to capture an insect, which is a delicacy of the local tribal people and called Tari in the local dialect, with mosquito nets when the bridge collapsed due to excessive load and this was the second incident in the same month in Eastern Himalayas after a wooden bridge collapsed near Darjeeling were over 30 people lost their lives and many wounded.

Vivekananda flyover collapsed in Kolkata in 2016

BCCL

On March 31, 2016, around 30 people died and over 80 were injured after a 150 m steel span of the under-construction Vivekananda flyover collapsed. Speculations were that the construction was sub-standard, which hinted towards corruption that might have led to the poor construction quality of the bridge.

A source from the civil engineering department at IIT Kharagpur told Firstpost, "A state government official told us that the government is considering restoring the flyover and using it for one-way traffic. This is a construction that has zero strength left and would be unable to sustain the movement of ten vehicles at one time. The government appears to fear the prospect of spending another Rs 100 crores to demolish the flyover. But is it reason enough to endanger lives?"

Majerhat flyover collapsed in Kolkata in 2018

ANI

On September 4, 2018, three people lost their lives, and over 20 were wounded after the 40-year-old Majerhat bridge caved due to heavy rainfall in south Kolkata. The bridge among the busiest in the city used by thousands of people daily runs over the Majerhat Railway Station and connects the city centre to Behala and other southern suburbs. West Bengal had been reeling under heavy rains and over 100 people lost their lives in rain-related incidents in 2018.

Mumbai's Elphinstone railway station foot over bridge in 2017

PTI

On September 29, 2017, a railway foot-over-bridge at Elphinstone Road station collapsed during the morning rush hours, killing 23 people. The incident occurred during peak hours in the morning on the foot overbridge which is known to be crowded most of the time. According to initial reports, heavy rains triggered the chaos which resulted in a stampede.

Mumbai foot over bridge collapsed in 2019

BCCL

On March 2019, Six people were killed and over 30 others wounded after a portion of the concrete slab of a key foot over bridge that connected Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus to a school on the busy Dadabhai Naoroji Road in south Mumbai collapsed. What is even more shocking is that just six months ago the bridge was declared 'fit to use' after a structural audit. There are also reports that the auditor had recommended minor repairs, but only beautification was carried out. An eyewitness said the over-bridge was being used by pedestrians even as repair works were ongoing.

Morbi Bridge Collapsed in 2022

AP

Recently around 141 people including women and children, have lost their lives after a 150-year-old suspension bridge that was built during British rule in the 19th century on the Machchhu river in Gujarat¡¯s Morbi city collapsed on Sunday evening. Around 500 people were on the bridge when the cables supporting it snapped, sending people crashing into the river below.

People fell on top of each other after the bridge snapped. Videos showed many desperately clinging to the remains of the bridge while some were seen swimming to safety. Many were performing Chhath puja rituals on the centuries-old bridge located 300 km from Vadodara.

On Monday, police arrested nine people, four of them were members of the Oreva group in charge of the Morbi suspension bridge. They filed a lawsuit against the firms in charge of maintaining and running the British-era building that collapsed, killing 134 people.