Hyderabad, Apr 1 (PTI) : The city-based IVRCL which was constructing the flyover in Kolkata, a portion of which collapsed yesterday killing 24 people, today described the incident as an "accident", a day after another official of the company had dubbed it as an "act of God".

"An act of God was just an expression only to describe that it is under no one's control", P Sita, the construction company's legal team head, told reporters here.

K Panduranga Rao, Group Head (HR & Admin) of the Hyderabad-based company had told reporters yesterday, "it's nothing but a God's act. So far in 27 years we have constructed several number of bridges...such thing (collapse) never happened,"
"We are surprised and extremely shocked. We are there to cooperate with investigation, but investigation takes time", Sita said.

Showing a photograph in a newspaper, she said that it looked like a site of bomb blast. There were various aspects which would be looked into.

Stating that same construction materials were used in building the ongoing flyover, she asked, "why did this happen? We are anxious to know the reasons".

Regarding the delay, another official of the company said, "78 per cent work of the flyover is over. A number of clearances have not yet come".

Meanwhile, a four-member police team from West Bengal today arrived in the city as part of its probe to question officials of IVRCL after the flyover it was constructing collapsed in Kolkata.

"They have come and are doing investigation," a top police official of Hyderabad Police told PTI.

Kolkata Police had yesterday registered a case against the construction firm under sections 304, 308 and 407 of the IPC and sealed the local office of company engaged in the flyover's construction.

Earlier news

Flyover collapse: Five officials of construction firm detained

Kolkata, Apr 1 (PTI): Five officials of the company that was building a flyover that collapsed on to vehicles and street vendors here have been detained.

Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar, who paid a visit to the mishap site, told reporters "We have detained a few officials of the construction company. We are taking action against them".

Kolkata Police has registered a case against the Hyderabad-based construction firm IVRCL under sections 304, 308 and 407 of the IPC and sealed the local office of the company.

According to another senior police official, who spoke to PTI on condition of anonymity, about seven persons, injured in yesterday's mishap, were in a "very critical condition".

Asked when would the area be cleared off all the debris of concrete and iron girdles, the officer said, "the clearing at the main crossing (Ganesh Talkies crossings) will hopefully be over by today. But the rest like iron piers, iron pillars, broken concrete parts will be cleared in a step-by-step process."

The other end of the Vivekananda flyover towards the KK Tagore Street, where the metal pier, holding the bridge, was completely damaged would be cut but "a planned engineering plan is necessary for that", he said.

"It's a very very congested area with buildings so close to the flyover. And most of the buildings are very old. So we must keep in mind that in order to remove the damaged portions of the flyover another mishap does not take place," he said.

Army jawans, NDRF along with city police's DMG team, special teams of Kolkata Traffic Police, DC Central, DC South, CRP from the Old Mint camp were all engaged in a night-long rescue operations.