Seven bodies recovered from the Rangchang Bridge debris

The debris which has flattened a 48-wheeler and from which the trapped dead bodies are being  extracted

MANGAN, 20 Dec:  A rescue team consisting of the Sikkim Fire Service, Police Personnel, Army and Home Guard & Civil Defence (HG&CD), technical expert from Teesta Urja along with the local people were engaged in the rescue operation for the past 24 hours at the Rangchang Bridge collapse site and managed to recover 7 out of the 8 bodies. [The number of casualties in the bridge collapse stands at 8, and not 10 as reported earlier in this paper]

The seven bodies recovered have been identified as those of Thal Bahadur Gautam [60 years], Bholanath Gautam [34], both residents of Tumin Barang in East Sikkim, Bishan Singh [the driver of the 48-wheeler], Bhola and Rampal, residents of Gorakhpur employed with Upper India Transport and Krishna Thakur of Teesta Urja. The body of Sakali Mohan Burman, a Teesta Urja employee was recovered at around 7 30 pm today. BDO Tintek, Tenzing Dorjee Denzongpa was present at the spot when the body was recovered. The dead body of Srinivasan Rao, another Teesta Urja employee, was still trapped under the debris at the time of filing this report.
Meanwhile, BRO has started work on the old bridge alongside to open it for light vehicular traffic which will resume from Wednesday, it is informed. However, this old bridge, originally constructed to carry upto 24 tonnes of load will now be allowed only 12 tonnes, informed BRO officials.
At present, vehicles plying to North Sikkim are taking the Khamdong-Tumin road via Dikchu to Gangtok.  Most of the commuters are being transhipped from the old bridge.
Among the three injured in the collapse, Kham Bahadur Basnett and Tika Darjee of Tumin Barang have been admitted to the District Hospital Singtam while Ravi Pal of Kolkata has been referred to Siliguri.
Speaking to media persons, DIG Sreedhar Rao stated that rescue and rehabilitation is the prime focus at present and further informed that the contractor for the said bridge has been taken into custody and a criminal case under section 304, 120B, 338 & 336 registered at Singtam Police Station. He has been remanded to police custody for 5 days.
BRO Commander, PKH Singh, in turn informed that the bridge had a capacity of 70 tonnes and it has not been ascertained whether it was technical failure or over-load that caused the collapse. The cause will be revealed only after a detailed enquiry is completed, he added.
He also informed that as per the circular of the State government to check the health of bridges after the 18 September Earthquake, a BRO technical team had checked the Rangchang Bridge and had found it to be stable.  
The Commander further informed that an MoU had been signed between BRO and Teesta Urja regarding the specific carrying capacity of the bridge during its construction.
MLA Tumin-Lingee, Ugen T Gyatso Bhutia, today handed over ex-gratia of Rs. 20,000 to the injured persons and also announced the CM’s decision Rs 1 Lakh ex gratia to the next of kin of the deceased.