Collapse Of Flyover In Kolkata Poem by Asit Kumar Sanyal

It was late 1980s ….
Left front government sought Japnese help
To work out ways to ease
Populated city Kolkata's traffic congestion
The Japanese agency JICA surveyed the city
And suggested WB govt. to build
At least a dozen flyovers
Vivekananda Flyover … one of them.
It was under JICA economic package
Routed through JNNURM
The project launched in 2003
A reputed firm of Kolkata designed it
An unnamed firm validated
But saw no work till 2008
For lack of funds.

The project contracted in 2008
Work began in 2009 by IVRCL,
A Hyderabad based cons. company
It was scheduled to be completed in 2010
but overshot the deadline multiple times.
Finally, Mamata govt. allotted fund
To this 450 crore project
And set 18 months deadline
Ending with Feb 16.
The work was in swing
suddenly engineers noticed minor cracks
On the girder of pillar no.40
They reported … but was ignored
done patch work.
The day before accident
Concrete was laid on the flyover
Hours before.....
the cantilever of that pillar cracked
Engineers heard the cracking sound of nuts
Reported … but safety dept. smiled
Even traffic continued
Soon, forty percent of the 2.2 KM long flyover
collapsed... like the elevated metro bridge
Of Delhi... at greater Kailash.
Killed 27, injured more than 80 people.