Portion of flyover falls on goods train in Muzaffarpur

Muzaffarpur: The middle portion of a flyover with vehicles passing over it collapsed on a goods train in Bihar`s Muzaffarpur town on Wednesday, injuring seven persons.

At least two autorikshaws passing on the flyover in Maripur area fell down when a 50-feet portion, around 300 metre from the Muzaffarpur railway station, caved in, railway and police sources said. A number of motorcycles could been seen trapped under the debris, the sources and eye witnesses said. Shoes and chappals were strewn on the tracks as the police had a harrowing time controlling crowds at the accident spot to start clearing the debris. Two wagons of the slowly moving goods train laden with cement bound for Motihari derailed and were severely damaged by falling debris, Chief Public Relation Officer, East Central Railway Amitabh Prabhakar said. He said the driver halted the goods train immediately after it was hit by falling debris. An earlier report said that the goods train was stationary. The injured were admitted to the Sadar Hospital, the sources said. The 40-year old Maripur bridge was around 100 feet long and 20 feet in width in the heart of Muzaffarpur town, 90 km from state capital, Patna. MORE PTI COR SNS PC PMS Prabhakar said that both the up and down tracks through Muzaffarpur town toward Motihari and Hajipur under Sonepur division were disrupted by the accident. Over two dozen trains including Delhi-Vaishali Licchvi Express and Swatantra Senani Express were stalled by the accident, ECR sources said. Additional General Manage, ECR Ajay Shukla and DRM, Sonepur supervised operations at the accident spot. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar expressed concern over the mishap and spoke to Muzaffarpur District Magistrate Anupam Kumar and Superintendent of Police Saurabh Kumar, a report from Patna said. CMO sources said that the Kumar directed Secretary Roads Pratyay Amrit to rush to Muzaffarpur.