Liluah: The makeshift bamboo fencing along a railing-less stretch of a stairway leading to a Liluah overbridge from where a woman fell and suffered critical injuries last month was erected by a worried father and not any government agency.

Awadhesh Singh feared for his daughter's life and limbs after he heard about Madhuri Mishra's fall. Singh's daughter Kiran and Mishra's daughter Aarchi are both students of Class VIII at Rose Bud School in Howrah. Kiran, like Aarchi, takes the stairway on her way to school every day.

"I was worried about my daughter's safety ever since the railings went missing. But the accident was a wake-up call. My daughter could have been the next one to fall through the gap. I could not wait for any agency to fix it," said Singh, 47, a trader in toys. The Singhs and Mishras live in the same neighbourhood.

Singh had some bamboo poles lying at home. He hired two labourers to erect the makeshift railing. The structure is made of six bamboo poles - three horizontal and three vertical - nailed into one another. The poles have been tied to the iron railings of the bridge with thin metal wires.

"It is far from a permanent structure. It might not withstand a severe storm. But being a father, I could not have done nothing," he told Metro.

The railings have been missing for at least four months, local residents said. "An accident had been waiting to happen. Most pillars of the stairway are rusted. The stretch turns into a liquor den after sundown. We have approached police and the civic body several times but nothing has been done," said Jaidev Mohata, a third-year student of Seth Anandram Jaipuria College and a local resident.

Broken bottles were seen on almost every landing of the stairway when Metro visited the spot on Friday. The stench of urine was inescapable.

Two stairways lead to the busy overbridge from Mahabir Chowk in Liluah. Both are in a similar condition with yawning gaps in place of railings.

The overbridge - the only safe passage from one side of Liluah station in Howrah to another - is used by hundreds of people daily who choose not to risk their lives by walking across the railway tracks.

The stairs are frequently used by schoolchildren who get dropped on the overbridge from pool cars or schoolbuses and vans. There are a host of schools in the area - Don Bosco, the Agrasain schools and MC Kejriwal Vidyapeeth to name a few.