On Sunday, an under-construction bridge across the Ganga river in Bihar collapsed. On April 30, last year, a piece of the same bridge fell.
On Monday, just one day after an under-construction bridge across the Ganga river in Bihar’s Bhagalpur district collapsed, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar stated, “It should have been stronger.” Speaking to reporters, Nitish stated that the bridge is not being ‘built right,’ which is why it keeps crumbling. On April 30, last year, a piece of the bridge that was supposed to connect Bihar’s Khagaria district with Bhagalpur collapsed.
“I gave instructions to officials to take strict action,” Nitish Kumar stated.
#BiharBridgeCollapse: Latest visuals from the spot in Bhagalpur where under construction Aguwani-Sultanganj bridge collapsed for the second time yesterday
— Financial Express (@FinancialXpress) June 5, 2023
Source: ANI #Bihar #BridgeCollapse #Bhagarpur@NitishKumar @ArvindKejriwal @officecmbihar pic.twitter.com/KTNExnoknH
There were no casualties or injuries reported in the incident, which occurred on Sunday evening and was seen on video by several bystanders. The bridge was apparently being built at a cost of more than Rs 1,700 crore and was scheduled to be finished in November 2019.
The collapse of the bridge prompted Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav to conduct a hasty press conference.
Read More: World Environment Day 2023: Poster, Essay, Slogan, and Short Speech Ideas
“As you might know, a portion of this bridge collapsed on April 30th, last year.” Following that, we requested IIT-Roorkee, which is well-known for its building expertise, to conduct the study. It has yet to provide a final assessment, but specialists who evaluated the structure informed us that there were severe flaws,” Yadav stated at the press conference.
A section of this bridge collapsed during a thunderstorm last year. It was a widely publicized occurrence, and I vehemently opposed it as Leader of the Opposition at the time, he continued.
Yadav stated that when his government took office, it conducted an investigation and sought professional advice. He said that many structural flaws’ have been identified by experts and that they have already demolished numerous areas that have been identified as most vulnerable.
The BJP has demanded Nitish Kumar’s resignation following the Bihar bridge collapse.
Samrat Choudhary, head of the Bihar Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), issued a statement seeking the resignation of Nitish Kumar, who severed ties with the saffron party in August the previous year.
“Substandard materials were used in the bridge’s construction.” The chief minister is unconcerned with Bihar’s progress… He is now on tour. “After this incident, he must resign from his position,” Choudhary stated.
Former Bhagalpur MP and fellow BJP politician Syed Shahnawaz Hussain also blamed the mishap on ‘corruption’ and urged a high-level investigation into the tragedy.
He further claimed that the occurrence “has cast doubt on construction projects being undertaken throughout the state, many of them have been awarded to the same contractor.”
