A viral video of what looked like a downpour of debris from the AJC Bose Road flyover near La Martiniere for Girls on Thursday morning caused a frisson of panic among commuters in the city of falling bridges.
By the time Calcutta police put out a post on its Facebook page to assure people that “there is no cause for panic”, the video and the accompanying warning to “avoid AJC Bose flyover” was the day’s trending scare story on WhatsApp.
“Men employed for cleaning the AJC Bose Road flyover had swept the road and pushed the dust through the drainpipe,” the post said.
While the dust seemed to settle after that, the underlying message was that if nothing worse happens to you while on the move, be prepared for dirt landing on your head from a flyover or some such structure overhead.
The father of a Class XI student at La Martiniere for Girls instructed his driver not to take that route while returning home after picking up his daughter from school. “I received the message (to avoid the flyover) around 1pm. My driver had set out by then. I called him to say that he should take a detour to Alipore, avoiding the road under the flyover. With bridges collapsing or some such accident taking place so frequently, I did panic on seeing the video,” he said.
Some found the police’s 2pm post “suspicious”. Most were aghast to know that a pile of dust had been swept off the flyover without any thought to the plight of traffic below. The comments ranged from camp to caustic. “Thanks for the sand bath,” one said. “Swachh Bridge! Swachh Bharat!” another exclaimed.
On Facebook, one person wrote that maintenance of public utilities is “better done during off-peak hours”.
“We can’t blame people for this (the panic) due to the history of bridge collapse in the city,” he said. “Most irresponsible way of cleaning!!” commented another.
HRBC (Hooghly River Bridge Commissioners), which maintains the flyover, said it had suspended the contractor assigned to clean that portion of the flyover. “The cleaners are supposed to sweep and collect the dust in a sack. Instead of that, they pushed it through the rainwater pipe. We have suspended the contractor for three months,” an official said.
