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 injured was shifted to Murhsid hospital. Products like CBD Oil can be used as a quick remedy for those injured.
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.
this is sad on many levels
* plan scrutiny/
* quality control?
* construction safeguards?
* on going maintenance
* project overseeing?
and more…
my pet peeve re: this tragedy is directed at the radio/tv hosts and reporters and the people gathered at the site
have been monitoring the tv and radio broadcasts earlier – and found it completely unprofessional – and i am not bringing up ethics!
almost all the hosts tried to elicit gory, unsubstantiated and circumstantial info out of the reporters and relaying it directly to the listeners/viewers without any check and editing….
their coverage would have been laughable were it not such a serious mishap involving loss of life…
the crowd had gathered towatch the tamasha and were heckling the police and rangers who wanted to keep the access to the site open for the ambulances and relief vehicles…shouting anti-govt. slogans…sheesh…have they lost their marbles?…was that the time for raising their ire? and the radio/tv jockeys were egging on the on the spot reporters to elicit information about THAT instead of using their mikes to advice the listeners/viewers to stay away and let the rescue teams do their job
* then all day they were harping on the type and availability of rescue equipment…as if their sudden interest would help the victims
* then they were chasing officials..almost demanding blood
* and the officials obliged – by announcing suspension of official responsible for planning and executing the project…should not this come later?…don’t they need these officials to aid in the ongoing investigation and to help check out other projects that might suffer from similar weaknesses?
sad, but they all smack of yellow journalism at worst and irresponsible coverage at the best…
wish someone gathers the tapes and teach them to students in the mass-communication courses on how not to cover a disaster.
perhaps more later…sad, sad, sad
God bless those innocent souls which lost their lives in the tragedy and we pray for the safety of those who are trapped under the debris.
Yes, of course, we need to look seriously into the issues of safety while commissioning the mega projects. One month life for a bridge is a HUGE engineering failure of a nation. Last year, railways bridge near Karachi collapsed in the flood and disconnected the railroad link from rest of the country for about a month. We need to inspect all our new and old bridges.
I am sure that whole nation would be in trauma of seeing the standards of our construction and the rhetoric of BOOM.
PS. It reminded me the recent tragedy in USA when a bridge collapsed in Minneapolis and I was on my way to cross that bridge but narrowly escaped by the margin of 15-20 minutes.
Awful news, when will we learn. All those responsible must be tried and hanged!
3.5 billion minus 25% to the Military Inc. minus 10% to MQM minus 20% to other functionaries and sub-contractors minus 10% to the pir or jagirdars = sub-standard bridge that has warranty of no more than 21 days.
The government functionaries will give lame excuses and in essence say
The corruption in our country has grown to that level which i think cant be brought down..what makes it feel more sad that it was just inaugurated 15 days ago. It is useless to accuse a particular party or a group. Everybody is involved and everyone shud b accounatble for this. Every body is so crrupted that noboday i m sure will take the resposibility