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BRIDGE WITH A VIEW: People climb the broken flank of the flyover on Sunday afternoon for a look. (Amit Datta)
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Spectacular!
That is the thought that came to Aparajita Prasad’s mind while cruising down the Ultadanga flyover towards VIP Road with her husband at the wheel a few days after its inauguration in 2011.
The flyover had taken shape in front of Aparajita’s eyes. The cacophony of round-the-clock construction would often give her family and other residents of the nearby Rohini Coal India complex sleepless nights.
If there were days she wished the flyover hadn’t come up in that neighbourhood, the sight of the completed structure made the Ultadanga homemaker proud of being a “neighbour”.
Early on Sunday, Aparajita woke up to what seemed like an explosion and rushed to her seventh-floor bedroom window. She recounts to Metro the horror of the sight that greeted her.
I had just been jolted out of sleep and was still trying to make sense of what that sound was when the ground began to shake. Could this be an earthquake, I wondered.
When the tremors stopped, I rushed to the window of my bedroom that overlooks the flyover. All I could see was a veil of dust. Nothing was visible.
When the dust settled, it was an unbelievable sight. A flank of the flyover was missing. Arre, what happened? Where did it go? Was I in a dream? I rubbed my eyes. I could see more clearly now. Under the lights of the flyover and the glow of the billboards, I could now clearly make out that a portion of the flyover was indeed missing.
Then I looked below. Oh! My God! The missing portion of the flyover was in the canal. And crushed between that slab from the bridge and a pillar was a truck.
I could now hear voices on the road below. People from the adjoining colony were running towards the flyover. I again looked up. A vehicle on the flank that had collapsed was reversing.
I reached for my phone and dialled the police helpline 100. My call was answered in a jiffy. I told the officer about what had happened and requested him to immediately have the flyover closed to traffic lest a vehicle fall into the chasm.
Visibility had increased by the time I returned to my window. A crowd had milled by the canal. I could make out that someone had been rescued from the debris. A police vehicle arrived after a few minutes. I was relieved to see that vehicles were no longer plying on either flank of the flyover.
In the last couple of years, I have often spent time enjoying the spectacular view of the flyover against the backdrop of the Salt Lake skyline from my terrace. You won’t find me sitting on my terrace for a while. I can’t bear to see the broken flyover.
As told to Zeeshan Jawed
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