Mumbai: Authorities begin process to seal bridge at railway end

The busy stretch where a portion of the FOB collapsed on Thursday links the North-South bound traffic to the busy JJ Flyover. Evening is a peak time when office goers in the area start convening there to reach a destination. Following the mishap, the authorities sealed the railway side opening of the foot overbridge which collapsed killing five people and injuring many.

Authorities demolished a portion of the divider below the bridge, in what seemed to be an effort to create access for pedestrians to cross the road. While authorities had cleared the debris of the fallen bridge, work on breaking the remaining concrete portion of the bridge was still on.

Traffic on both sides were halted and officials said that it was not likely to open unless the remaining portion is broken completely. Police authorities informed that traffic will be reopened only after the demolition of remaining portion of the bridge is complete.

By 10 pm, they seemed to have sealed most part of the bridge. "I think I was lucky to not have taken the bridge today. Normally I take this route every day," said Siddharth Jadhav who had come back to see the chaos. A resident of Badruddin Tayabji Marg, he was coming back from Vikhroli, where he works.

"Today I had decided to take the other route. I just entered the lane and there was a sudden tremor due to the collapse. When I went around to check, a portion of the bridge had crashed upon a few cars and people were lying wounded.