Bihar Bridge Collapse: Road Dept To Complete Probe At The Earliest

The additional chief secretary for Bihar Road Construction Department, Pratyaya Amrit on Tuesday said that the investigation into the collapse of the under-construction bridge in Bihar's Bhagalpur will be completed soon adding that a new bridge shall be constructed.

Pratyaya Amrit was quoted by ANI as saying, "We will try to complete the investigation at the earliest. We have served a showcause notice to SP Singla and Company as to why they should not be blacklisted. They have been given 15-day time to reply. For serious dereliction of duty, the Executive Engineer of Bihar Rajya Pul Nirman Nigam posted at Khagaria has been put under suspension and departmental proceedings have started. The Managing Director of Bihar Bridge Construction Corporation has also been showcaused as to why was there a delay when the instructions were very clear to completely demolish pier 5. A new bridge will be constructed. We will try to prioritise it so that the work on this can start after monsoon."

Pratyaya Amrit further said, "When its pier no.5 collapsed on April 30, 2022, we deployed an IIT Roorkee team for its investigation. There were some defects in its structural audit. Taking a cue from that, we had asked IIT Roorkee to examine the entire design. We suspected the same defects to be there in the design. We were waiting for that report to come. Today, we got that report also. We will examine the report and what are the recommendations of IIT Roorkee."

Meanwhile, a PIL was filed in the Patna High Court seeking an independent inquiry into the collapse of the Aguwani-Sultanganj bridge in Bihar's Bhagalpur that took place on Sunday.

Manibhushan Pratap Sengar in his writ petition sought an independent probe instead of a departmental inquiry and action against SP Singla Company, involved with the construction of the bridge.

The PIL also sought recovery of losses of thousands of crores to the exchequer due to the collapse of the bridge.

As the politics over the bridge collapse in Bihar gained momentum, state Minister and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tej Pratap Yadav accused Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of demolishing the bridge.

"The bridge has been demolished by BJP. We are building the bridge and they are demolishing it," Tej Pratap Yadav told reporters on Monday.

On the other hand, BJP MP Ravi Shankar Prasad demanded an audit of all under-construction bridges in Bihar after the Aguwani-Sultanganj bridge collapse.

Moreover, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has ordered a probe into the collapse of an under-construction bridge in Bhagalpur and asked the officials to identify those responsible for the incident.

Nitish Kumar directed officials to take strict action against those responsible for the "poor construction work" of the under-construction bridge over River Ganga.

"The bridge that collapsed yesterday had collapsed last year also. I have instructed the authorities concerned to look into the matter seriously. It is not being constructed correctly that's why it is collapsing again and again. The department will look into it, I have instructed officials to visit the site and action will be taken," CM Nitish Kumar said.

Also Read: Bihar Bridge Collapse: PIL Filed in Patna HC Seeking Independent Inquiry