PATNA: A portion of an under-construction bridge over the river Ganga collapsed in Bihar’s Katihar on Thursday. The bridge being constructed by rural works department was to connect the Bakiya-Sukhey panchayat to the district headquarters town. It was sanctioned under Mukhya Mantri Sadak Yojna.
Officials said that two pillars of the small bridge were washed away due to heavy flow of water in the river. However, no casualty or injury was reported in the bridge collapse incident. Katihar district magistrate Manesh Kumar Meena said that the work on the under-construction bridge started recently. Two pillars of the bridge have collapsed due to increase in the river current, he added. DM Meena said that a team of officials of the department visited the spot. “They have been asked to submit its report at the earliest. Further investigation is underway,” he told this reporter over the phone.
Neeraj Kumar Singh, minister in-charge of Katihar district, however, told the media in Patna that it would not be appropriate to call it an under-construction bridge collapse. “The construction started recently, initial reports suggested that two pillars of the bridge had collapsed. The NDA government in the state has already made it clear that strict action will be taken the officers and contractors if operational or full constructed bridges collapse,” he remarked.
Over a dozen bridges have already collapsed across the state in the past two months and so. Taking a serious note of such incidents, the government placed 16 engineers under suspension and initiated departmental inquiry against them. Kishanganj, Araria, East Champaran, Siwan, Saran and Gopalganj witnessed the collapse of bridges in the last two months. The collapse of big as well as small bridges besides some culverts heated up political temperature as opposition criticised the government for its failure to check the incidents. Bihar has been plagued by infrastructural mismanagement for the last few years. The most glaring example, as reported by TNIE a few days ago, was the construction of a bridge in with no road connectivity in the middle of an agricultural land.
