PIL seeks action against officials over bridge collapse

A public interest litigation (PIL) has been filed regarding the incident of a bridge collapsing in Mahad, which led to two state transport (ST) buses and one Tavera being submerged in the Savitri River and the passengers drowning.

The PIL — filed by Pranay Sawant, a local worker of a political party — states: “Since 2012, we were constantly saying that the bridge is in a dilapidated condition and we had approached the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) and PWD officials, but nobody bothered to do anything.”

The petition added that if action had been taken in time, this incident could have been avoided.

In May 2016, NHAI officials had conducted a structural audit of the said bridge and declared it to be safe.

So, the petitioner demanded, action should be taken against the officials concerned and a case of culpable homicide should be levied against those who declared the bridge to be safe.

Mr Sawant further said that National Disaster Response Force personnel were carrying a search operation in the Savitri River, and the cost of this rescue operation should be recovered from the NHAI officials, since it is because of their negligence that this incident occurred.

The state government had recently declared that a structural audit would be conducted of all the old bridges in Maharashtra. So, the petition said, the high court needs to monitor the report that the state will submit.

A division bench of Justice V.M. Kanade and Justice S.M. Sonak kept August 12 as the next date of hearing in this matter.