PATNA: A portion of access path leading to a bridge across the river Gandak towards a 1.6 km long bridge caved-in at Bihar’s Gopalganj district on Wednesday evening, snapping road connectivity between Saran and East Champaran.
According to Nand Kishore Yadav, minister of Bihar government’s road construction department, the Sattarghat based main bridge that was inaugurated by CM Nitish Kumar on June 16, is safe but a portion of access-path of a nearby small bridge located about 2 km away towards Gopalganj, had caved in.
“Both the main 1.6 km long Sattarghat Bridge and the small bridge of 18 meter length are safe without any damages to them.” Traffic would be restored soon, he added.
The minister accused Leader of Opposition Tejashwi Yadav of spreading false news of a bridge damaged just for political gains.
Meanwhile, an official source said that the access-path was built in a hurry to show the works completed without using solid materials like boulders that provide strength to the metaled road.
Tejashwi and LJP chief Chirag Paswan both demanded an independent probe into the incident.
“Corruption rules the roost in the Nitish Kumar government’s every departments. The company engaged in the construction of the road and the bridge must be blacklisted,” Tejashwi said.
Similarly, Paswan also demanded a high-level investigation into the cave-in. Later, BJP spokesperson Dr Nikhil Anand released a video showing the main bridge standing at its location.
“The approach road of main bridge. The Opposition should not make such blunder and mislead the media as well people for political gains,” he said in response to the allegations.