Collapsed bridge in Bihar: CM Nitish Kumar promises investigation

Patna: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday addressed the collapse of the under-construction bridge over the Ganga river. He said those who are responsible for the incident will be punished and recalled that the same bridge collapsed once before in April 2022. He also questioned why the construction is not completed yet because it started in 2014.

"The bridge is not being constructed properly and that is why it collapsed twice since April 2022. It's a serious matter. The department concerned has already initiated a thorough probe into it. Strict action will be taken against those found guilty," said the CM.

"Why is it running behind schedule? I have asked the department concerned to probe this also. The Deputy Chief Minister is also monitoring the developments," he added.

Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, who also holds the portfolio of the Road Construction Department, said the state government is planning to entirely demolish the bridge because it has structural flaws causing it to collapse repeatedly. "It may be recalled that a portion of this bridge had collapsed on April 30 last year. We had, thereafter, 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."

On Sunday, the bridge collapsed on the Khagaria side. In April 2022, it collapsed on Bhagalpur's Sultanganj side during a thunderstorm. The bridge is 3.16 km long. At least 30 slabs placed on three pillars of the four-lane Sultanganj-Aguwani Ghat bridge caved in yesterday. The project has an estimated cost of Rs 1,700 crore.