`Allah saved us,’ says the truck driver as his vehicle fell down in the canal when the flyover collapsed.
By Zaidul Haque, TwoCircles.net,
Kolkata: A truck driver had a miraculous escape when a flyover, constructed nearly two years ago, collapsed on a canal collapsed yesterday.
The flyover connecting VIP Road and EM Bypass near Ultadanga and straight leads to Calcutta Airport collapsed on the morning of March 3 when a loaded truck carrying marble slabs from Rajasthan to the city, the right side of the seventh pillar on the EM Bypass-bound flank developed cracks, causing the portion to cave in with deafening sound at around 4 am.
Collapsed the Ultadanga Flyover, way to Eastern metropolitan By Pass in Kolkata on 3rd March, 2013
Within a short time Urban Development Minister Firhad Hakim and another state minister with government official reached the place and started investigation.
However, luckily though the driver and his helper sustained injuries, there was no casualty. When TCN talked to them, they thanked Almighty God for their lives.
Majid Khan on the bed at R G Kar Medical College & Hospital at Kolkata on 3rd March, 2013.
The truck’s 35 year-old driver, Khaleque Mohammad and reserved driver37 year-old Sheikh Majid Khan, were admitted to the RG Kar Medical College Hospital. The third person, 22-year-old Sheikh Saifuddin, was first admitted to the Bidhannagar sub-divisional hospital but was later shifted to a private hospital off the EM Bypass when his condition deteriorated.
Khaleque Mohammed, talking about the accident on his bed at R G Kar Medical College Hospital, said it is the mercy of the Allah that he is still alive. Khaleque is from village Dauri and Majid resides at Hihadi village of Alwar district in Rajasthan.
Khaleque Mohammad on the bed at R G Kar Medical College & Hospital at Kolkata on 3rd March, 2013
Khaleque said that as he noticed the cracks in flyover, he accelerated the speed to pass the bridge fast, but truck fell down towards the left and his aides, who were sleeping, fell down. He says he remembers nothing after that and that when he woke up, he found himself in the hospital.
Thankful to Allah for their miraculous escape, they now quickly want to go back to their village.