Bihar bridge 'deliberately destroyed': Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav says it had design flaws
PATNA: A day after the Aguvani-Sultanganj bridge in Bihar's Bhagalpur over the Ganga river collapsed on Sunday, Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav said that it was a planned demolition as experts had found ‘serious defects’ in its design.
Tejashwi said that technical experts from IIT Roorkee had detected significant technical flaws in the design of the bridge and the segment of the pillar was demolished on the basis of the expert's report submitted to the department.
An under construction bridge on the river Ganga collapsed in Bihar's Bhagalpur district. @NewIndianXpress @TheMornStandard @santwana99 pic.twitter.com/GhkhlsnQsv
— Ramashankar Mishra (@ramashankar68) June 4, 2023
" target="_blank">Videos of the Aguvani-Sultanganj bridge which was supposed to connect Khagaria district with Bhagalpur, collapsing had gone viral on social media prompting sharp criticisms from the opposition BJP.
Addressing a press conference, Yadav along with the additional chief secretary of road construction department, Pratyay Amrit, said that the decision was taken after a portion of the same bridge collapsed during a thunderstorm in 2022. The government had then assigned researchers at IIT-Roorkee to analyse the structure, he added.
"It may be recalled that a portion of this bridge had collapsed on April 30 last year. I strongly raised it in my capacity as the then Leader of the Opposition. Upon coming to power, we ordered an inquiry and sought expert opinion…approached IIT-Roorkee, which is esteemed for its expertise in construction matters, to conduct a study. It is yet to come up with a final report but experts who had studied the structure had informed us that there were serious defects," Yadav said at the press conference.
According to the report, there was a significant fault in the design of the bridge, which made the government take a decision to demolish the structure. Amrit said that the government didn’t want to risk it by waiting for the final report before taking down parts of the ‘flawed’ bridge.
The bridge connecting Sultanganj (Bhagalpur) with Aguvani Ghat (Khagaria) was estimated to be built at a cost of 1,710 crore. Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar had sought a detailed report from Pratayaya Amrit on the collapse of the bridge.
Nitish Kumar had instructed Pratayaya to provide a comprehensive report on the incident and emphasised the need for stern action against those found to be responsible.
Earlier, BJP state chief Samrat Choudhary demanded resignation of CM Nitish Kumar while former BJP MP from Bhagalpur Syed Shahwaz Hussain requested an investigation into the incident.