ROURKELA: As many as 10 workers escaped with minor injuries after a portion of an under-construction bridge collapsed at Koida in Sundargarh district on Sunday afternoon during slab casting.The mishap occurred on Jamudihi-Kunchapani road in Koida block under Bonai sub-division, about 100 km from Rourkela. The district administration has ordered an inquiry into the incident.
Bonai Assistant Collector RK Sethi informed that the incident occurred at about 2.30 pm. At least 10 workers engaged in slab casting atop the bridge suffered minor injuries as they came hurtling down with the iron structures supporting the concrete base caved in.
Bonai Sub-Collector Dr Yedulla Vijay, who is out of town, said over phone that a joint inquiry would be conducted by the Executive Engineer in Rourkela Division of Rural Development department, Koida Tehsildar, Bonai Sub-Divisional Police Officer and Project Administrator in Bonai Integrated Tribal Development Agency into the mishap. He said the probe would be completed in 24 hours.
Administrative sources said the bridge project under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) is being executed by NBCC India Ltd, a Central PSU, through the contract firm Atul Kumar Arun Construction. The length of the bridge is 43.7m with sanctioned cost of about Rs 1.95 crore.
Incidentally, since 2016-17, the NBCC has been engaged to implement 119 PMGSY projects in 15 of the 17 blocks in the district at a total cost of about Rs 260 crore. While NBCC is carrying out the projects with a skeleton staff, its contractors continue to be under scanner for implementation of low quality PMGSY works in absence of monitoring.