Bhagalpur:

A portion of an under-construction bridge in Bihar, which was being “dismantled”, crashed into the river Ganges river on Saturday, officials said.

The administration made it clear there were no casualties.

Video footage of a slab of the bridge, connecting Bhagalpur and Khagaria districts, has gone viral on social media in which locals, beholding the sight from a distance, can be heard screaming “the structure has collapsed once again”.

Notably, portions of the bridge, which would be 3.16 km long once complete, had collapsed earlier in 2022 and again, a year later.

However, when contacted, Khagaria District Magistrate Amit Kumar Pandey asserted that “the entire structure of the under-construction bridge has been deemed to be faulty and it is being dismantled by the contractor as per direction of the Patna High Court”.

The incident, which comes in the backdrop of numerous incidents of bridge collapse across the state, many of these taking place a few months back, triggered a political slugfest.

RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, a former deputy chief minister who held road construction portfolio till his party lost power in January this year, squarely blamed the Nitish Kumar government for the incident.

“The structure was examined by a committee of experts from IIT Roorkee when I headed the department. They found flaws in the designs of the foundation and the superstructure. But Chief Minister Nitish Kumar seems least bothered and it appears the report is gathering dust”.

Senior BJP leader Vijay Kumar Sinha, the current Deputy CM who holds road construction department, retorted, “Things would not have come to this, had the previous government been vigilant enough”.

“Nonetheless, we are not happy with the performance of the contractor whom the high court has directed to carry out the dismantling work. We are monitoring it. We shall also be apprising the high court of the laxity of the contractor, against whom action needs to be taken,” Sinha added

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Patna:

With bridge collapse incidents in Bihar breaking unflattering records, a senior BJP leader has said he is “afraid” of crossing any flyover or bridge in the state and that a “serious probe” is needed. The remark comes at a time when the Nitish Kumar-led BJP-JDU government is under fire from the Opposition over the frequent bridge collapse incidents.

“I am afraid of crossing through any flyover or bridge in Bihar. Surprised that in last 10 days half a dozen bridges have collapsed,” Dr Nikhil Anand said in a post on X. Dr Anand, a former journalist, joined the BJP in 2015. He has served as the party’s spokesperson in Bihar and is now a national general secretary in BJP’s OBC Morcha.

I am afraid of crossing through any Flyover or Bridge in Bihar. Surprised that in last 10 days half a dozen bridges have collapsed.

A serious probe & auditing is needed. The responsibility be fixed on the construction company, blacklist them. The engineers must be booked. #Bihar

— Dr. Nikhil Anand (@NikhilAnandBJP) July 4, 2024

“A serious probe and auditing is needed. The responsibility be fixed on the construction company, blacklist them. The engineers must be booked,” Dr Anand added in his post.

As many as 10 bridges have collapsed in Bihar in the past 15 days, making national headlines and raising serious questions about the quality of public infrastructure in the backward state.

The latest collapse has been reported from Saran district, which has witnessed two more such incidents in the past 24 hours. District authorities said no casualty was reported and that this bridge was built 15 years back. The small bridge over Gandaki river connected several villages in Saran with Siwan district.

The ten bridges that have collapsed in the past fortnight were in Siwan, Saran, Madhubani, Araria, East Champaran and Kishanganj districts.

The bridge collapse incident has sparked a sharp attack by the Opposition on the Nitish Kumar government. Leader of the Opposition Tejaswi Yadav – Mr Kumar’s deputy before his latest flip-flop – has questioned the silence of the Chief Minister and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on “these achievements”.

“Apparently, since BJP is in the government, corruption and crime are no longer issues,” he said.

Under fire, the Chief Minister has asked the road construction and rural works departments to inspect all old bridges in the state and identify those that require urgent repair.

The Opposition RJD today shared a photograph of the meeting and said no minister is present because the “arrogant” Chief Minister does not want them to attend this important meeting. “And officers don’t want ministers to attend because they be exposed,” RJD said in a post on X.