Mizoram bridge collapse: 23 workers from Bengal feared dead; 18 bodies found
Aizawl (PTI): Of 26 workers present on the under-construction railway bridge that collapsed in Mizoram's Aizawl district, 23 people are believed to be dead, though the police have recovered only 18 bodies, officials said on Thursday.
Three of those working there are in hospital and "undergoing treatment" while five are missing, they added.
All the 26 people working there were from Malda district of West Bengal.
The Railways said the accident that took place on Wednesday was due to the collapse of a gantry, which was being launched on the under-construction bridge over the Kurung river.
A high-level committee has been constituted to probe the incident involving the under-construction bridge, one of the 130 bridges in the Bhairavi-Sairang New Railway Line project.
All 18 bodies have been identified. They are Naba Chawdury, Mojammel Haque, Narim Rahman, Ranjit Sarkar, Kashim Sheikh, Samrul Haque, Jhallu Sarkar, Sakirul Sheikh, Masrekul Haque, Saidur Rahman, Rahim Sheikh, Suman Sarkar, Sariful Sheikh, Insarul Haque, Jayanta Sarkar, Md. Jahidul Sekh, Manirul Nadap and Sebul Mia.
"Five workers are still missing. But chances of their being alive are slim," a police officer said.
The five missing workers are Mojaffar Ali, Sahin Aktar, Nurul Haque, Senaul and Asim Ali.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said in Kolkata that arrangements have been made to bring their bodies to the state.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
