In a reality check, TOI found footoverbridges at Charbagh station posing a serious threat to users.

LUCKNOW: Authorities need to learn immediate lessons from the footover bridge collapse tragedy of Mumbai which killed six persons on Thursday.

In a reality check of footover bridges (FOBs) in the city on Friday, TOI found that two such bridges at Charbagh -which bear the maximum load every day - in perilous conditions and thereby posing serious threat to users.

One of these bridges connects platform 1 to platform 8 at Charbagh station. TOI found some of its pillars were damaged, rusted, and plaster peeling off at several places. Some stairs, too, were broken.

The other FOB - which is outside Charbagh railway station - too had rusted and broken pillars. Many nut bolts were missing and the roof had cracks. Like always, garbage was scattered all over the entrance of the footover bridge.

The other footover bridges in the city were in a better condition but most of them were filthy and clearly indicated poor upkeep.

Ruby Singh, a regular train traveller, said, " Negligence in maintenance of FOBs may lead to a Mumbai-like accident. Authorities don't care and people have no option but to use these bridges despite risk to their lives." Another commuter, Suresh, said, "Forget about maintenance, authorities are not even getting these FoBs cleaned daily."

When TOI apprised the railway and Lucknow Municipal Corporation officials about the fragile condition of the bridges they only said that repair work will be taken up soon.

