With one more body being recovered on Thursday from the debris at the Majerhat bridge collapse site in south Kolkata, the toll in the incident has risen to three.
The police identified the body as that of Goutam Mondal (45), a labourer from Murshidabad district who had been missing along with another labourer Pranab Dey since the accident that took place on Tuesday.
Mondal was working as a cook at the Metro rail extension project site adjacent to the Majerhat bridge, said the police.
The area near the site had been dug up for the project and construction material was strewn all over the place.
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Earlier on Wednesday, the rescuers found the body of Pranab Dey from under the debris. The first body to be found after the accident was that of Soumen Bag, 21, who was travelling from Silpara to College Street when the bridge came down.
Of the 24 injured, 11 were discharged on Wednesday while 13 are currently undergoing treatment in different hospitals, according to the police.
After Mondal’s body was found, personnel from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) left the spot, even as the State Disaster Management Department team continued with the rescue work.
“We are closing our operations as it seems there is nobody stuck inside,” said an official of the NDRF.
The state government has constituted a committee under Chief Secretary Malay De to investigate the cause of the bridge collapse.
The bridge runs over the Majerhat railway station, between Taratala and Mominpur, and connects Kolkata to Behala, south west suburbs and the neighbouring South 24 Parganas district.
With the Diamond Harbour Road closed and less number of buses plying, thousands of commuters were stuck in huge traffic jams since morning.
“We have diverted vehicles to and from the city through various other roads,” an officer of Kolkata Police traffic department said.
The police have registered a suo motu case against unknown persons in connection with their involvement in the collapse.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who cut short his visit to Darjeeling and returned to the city on Wednesday, will hold an emergency meeting with the PWD and other departments and the Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA) in connection with collapse.
This is the third bridge collapse in the city since 2013.
An under-construction flyover collapsed in the crowded Burrabazar area, the wholesale business hub of the city, on March 31, 2016, claiming 26 lives.
On March 4, 2013, a road bridge collapsed in Ultadanga area in the northern part of the city. There was no casualty.