BRIDGE COLLAPSES, BRICKBATS FLY

Structure took 8 years to come up, less than a month to crash

Allegations ran rife after a portion of the Sattarghat bridge on the Gandak River collapsed on Wednesday as water flow increased in the river due to heavy rainfall. The bridge in Gopalganj district of Bihar was inaugurated by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on June 16.

Even as administration officials took stock of the situation on Thursday, the ruling party MLA from Gopalganj, Mithilesh Kumar Tiwari, demanded blacklisting of the Bihar State Bridge Construction Corporation, while LJP president Chirag Paswan demanded a probe into the process of construction of the bridge. The state government, however, blamed the swollen the Gandak for the collapse.

Blaming the government, leader of opposition Tejashwi Yadav sought a CBI probe. The bridge, constructed at Rs263.48 crore, reduced the road distance between Gopalganj and other parts in North

Bihar by 45 km.

Additional Chief Secretary of the Corporation Amrit Lal Meena said heavy rains in the catchment of Gandak and its gushing waters uprooted the link to the main 1.44-km-long bridge. He hoped engineers would prepare an alternative route for diversion of traffic.

Tiwari claimed he had visited the bridge two days before its portion collapsed and found the structure too weak as only earthen support was found, an no cement structure on the basement was visible. “I immediately informed the road construction minister, Nand Kishore Yadav, and the managing director of the Corporation seeking immediate repair on the bridge, opened for traffic last month. It appears no action was taken and no boulder pitching was done," he said.

Local village head Enamul Haq Raju alleged that when he had visited the bridge on July 12, he too found the structure at the foundation too weak as instead of support with boulders, only earth was seen. According to him, the earth caved in following heavy rains and connectivity to Saran, East Chamapran, Muzaffarpur and parts of UP was snapped. Raju regretted that no anti-erosion work was done, and demanded action against the engineers.

However, refuting all the charges, Meena said 3.39 lakh cusecs of water was discharged from the Gandak river barrage and due to the resultant pressure the approach road got washed away. It was completely a natural calamity, he claimed.

Mithilesh Tiwari said government should blacklist the Corporation as the bridge collapse has made a dent on the image of NDA government which is recognised for its good governance.

Nitish Kumar had laid the foundation of the bridge on Gandak on April 5, 2012.

Road construction minister Nand Kishore Yadav said a team of engineers has been sent to get the approach road restored in the next couple of days.