Adil Najam
The barely 3-month old SherShah by-pass bridge collapsed suddenly today killing at least 5, injuring many, and reports suggest that many many more are still trapped under the collapsed structure which is so huge that it cannot be easily lifted to save them. The bridge had cost nearly Rs. 3.5 billion to build and had just recently been inaugurated. According to The News:
A bridge of Northern Bypass at Paracha Chowk in Shershah area of the metropolis, which was opened by Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf on 6 August 2007, collapsed here Saturday, killing at least four people, injuring several others while trapping an unknown number of people under the debris. “Four people have died and over a dozen were wounded in the collapse,” southern port city police official Khalid Hameed said, adding that several vehicles were trapped in the debris.
However, a person trapped in the debris of the bridge was miraculously rescued. According to Geo News correspondent two dead bodies and three wounded persons have been brought to Civil Hospital Karachi, while four injured have been transferred to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital and one inured was shifted to Murhsid hospital. Rescuers were trying to clear the wreckage to retrieve injured and survivors amid fears the death toll could rise, they said. Witnesses said a portion of the bridge known as Northern Bypass fell with a huge bang while traffic was on it.
“It created such a huge sound that we thought it was an earthquake,” Zahid Khan, a resident of the area said. Karachi City Nazim Mustapha Kamal said the authorities were investigating the cause of the blast. The bridge was built by the state-run National Highway Authority. Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz phoned Governor Sindh Dr. Ishrat-ul-Ebad to seek details of Karachi bridge collapse, which has left at least four people dead, several injured and an unknown number of people have been trapped in the debris. The Prime Minister directed Ishrat to take no stone unturned in the relief and rescue activities to help the victims. The injured people should be provided with proper medical care, he directed. Shaukat Aziz also directed PM Inspection Committee to probe into the incident to ascertain the cause.
Chief minister Sindh Dr. Ghulam Arbab Rahim has expressed deep concern over the tragic incident of the collapse of a part of the northern by-pass bridge in Shershah and said that the persons involved cannot be pardoned. He said that an impartial investigation of the incident would be made.
With us having discussed Karachi’s infrastructure problems often (here, here and here), including the recent Economist ranking of Karachi as a difficult-to-live-in city, this bad news only compounds a bad situation. That the bridge was such a recent addition and was opened with such fanfare also raises concerns about quality and safety of the many other development projects going on in Karachi and all over Pakistan.
Our first priority right now must be the safety of those still trapped under the malba. As soon as that is done, we must all start looking at these infrastructure issues more seriously than we have till now.
I wonder how many other bridges in Karachi are on the verge of collapse.
I hope all bridges/other constructions by the company involved should go through a reliability check although, it is highly unlikely. The company involved is defence-related!!!
Scenes like these are a result of contractors using cheap materials, hardware and untrained labour to reduce costs.
Obviously, it’s a great effort to find ways to save as much money as possible. The rest of it can go into their pockets of course!!! Well deserved!!
There was a structural failure in the Big Dig Tunnel (Boston) and how it was covered extensively in the press is known to us. Some heads had to roll.
In Karachi the Prime Minister did not even visit the site.Soon all reference to the Army connection with the bridge will disappear from the Pakistani press.
No one will talk of the Father in Law of the Top General’s son ____as the big contractor/consultant of the Ring Road Project. Same person was Chairman, National Highway Authority in the time of Benazir.
If we were a free country some people would be charged for murder of 8 innocent Pakistanis. Will that day come?
Here we go again:
Inna Lillahi Wa Inna Ilayhi Raji’oon
“ab pul girgya ab kia karsaktey hain” says Shamim Siddiqui, the minister from MQM. 1.Committees set up to investigate other committees and agencies. 2. Payoff “mowaza” of 5lakhs per body. Case Closed.
The root cause of Karachi’s problems is corruption and goondagurdi by the Ruling Elite.
(BTW the so-called “gone missing” Pakistanis were handed over to the CIA by our ISI in return for several million US dollars per head).
Accidents happen everywhere in the world. Its the short term and long term response to those accidents that seperates the nations.
I think the major difference between developed countries and Pakistan is that they have procedures in place to give proper response to such accidents, both long term and short term. That could include help to victims, accontability of responsible people, learning and improving the systems and procedures from the mistakes.
To put such systems in place is not at all a problem, provided the nation has the will and positive attitude towards improvement.
It will not e possible to have a fair and impartial investigation while the heads of NHA, NLC and the Minister of Comunications remain in their offices. Suspending four officials of NHA is not the answer. Similaly the head of the disaster managerment authority has a conflict of interest in undertaking the investigations against his khaki brethern.
The news item says NLC won the contract sole source without competition.
The bridge collapse is a bit metaphorical is it not — in Pervez Musharraf’s own Karachi, about the hollow claims of progress Pakistan made under Pervez Musharraf between 1999 and 2007 ?
Having said that, corruption in Pakistan is certainly at an all time low when compared with Benazir’s time…and at least Pervez Musharraf has the decency to visit Karachi instead of attempting to conquer Karachi in a tank like Haji Nawaz !
It is also a bit allegorical too, is it not, just like that recent bridge collapse in America where Pervez Musharraf’s master President Bush had to visit and shed a few crocodile tears ?
Loss of life is very sad. I guess I shouldn’t be joking about it. I think the construction company must have been planning to kill Musharraf using the bridge on Aug 6. It just didn’t happen on time.
I studied at Military College of Engineering Risalpur for three months after which i decided not to ruin my entire life after getting degree from there especially as I was a NUST cadet.
Our fluid instructors was so capable that he wrote the simple Boyle’s law wrong and when he was told about his mistake, he simply said i was just trying to check how many of you were attentive in the class.
So may be NLC has given nation the chance to get alert and realize what has already gone wrong and what the hell is going on?/