A under-construction bridge over the Ganga river in Bhagalpur district of Bihar, being built at a cost of ₹1,716 crore, came crashing down like a house of cards on Sunday. The four-lane bridge, being built between Sultanganj in Bhagalpur and Aguwani in Khagaria district, collapsed for the second time.
Eyewitnesses said when the bridge started collapsing, many men were working on it. However, no loss of life has been reported so far. The state government has ordered a probe into the incident.
“Yes, I have received the information that 4-5 pillars of the Aguwani-Sultanganj under-construction bridge collapsed. The administration is in touch with officials of the department concerned,” Bhagalpur District Magistrate Subrat Kumar Sen was quoted saying by news agency PTI.
Jump To
Deadline to complete bridge construction extended
The bridge, inaugurated in 2014 by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, connects Sultanganj and Khagaria districts.
Last year, the structure of the bridge collapsed due to strong wind and rain. Started in 2014, the deadline to complete the bridge has failed eight times.
Instead of penalising the construction company for the delay, the government kept on giving time to complete the work. The bridge is important because it connects north and south Bihar.
The bridge was being built by SP Singla Constructions Private Limited at a cost of Rs 1,710 crore.
bridge-bihar
Cover up or planned demolition?
According to a PTI report, the Bihar government said that the collapsed part was deliberately pulled down because experts had flagged design flaws in the the 3.1-kilometre-long bridge.
According to PTI, Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav and Additional Chief Secretary of Road Construction Department, Pratyay Amrit, held a press conference on Sunday after images of the collapsed bridge were shared widely on social media, inviting criticism from the BJP.
“It may be recalled that a portion of this bridge had collapsed on April 30 last year. We had, thereafter, approached IIT-Roorkee to conduct a study,” Yadav said.
Amrit said, “It was decided that we must not take any chance and wait for a final report. So we went ahead with pulling down parts of the bridge. It was a part of such a preventive exercise”.
BCCL
Similar incident last year
In December last, a bridge snapped into two and fell into the Burhi Gandak river in Begusarai district. No one was injured in the incident as the bridge was yet to be formally opened to the public due to the lack of an access road. “It was to be inaugurated soon but it collapsed before that,” an official said at the time of accident last year.
For more on news and current affairs from around the world please visit universo virtual News.