Your responsibility to watch out for the gap in bridge !

A 70-year-old man was critically injured after falling 25 feet through a gap left by a missing slab on an overbridge footpath near Howrah Maidan near Kolkatta but the government agencies have denied responsibility for the hole that is allegedly several months old.

Police and witnesses have been quoted by media in Kolkatta that the pedestrian, who was not identified did not see the 4ft x 3ft hole on the left side of the road approaching Chandmari bridge from Howrah Maidan and fell through it. Residents of the area said the bridge had been painted blue and white about a year ago but the missing concrete slab was not replaced. The elderly man’s fall was broken by cables hanging below the bridge. He was taken to Howrah District Hospital, where doctors said he had suffered head injuries and was unconscious and critical. The man, who has suffered several cuts and bruises, was kept on the floor of the surgical ward as no bed was available.

Several thousand pedestrians daily use the footpath on the bridge that connects north and south Howrah.