Law Kumar Mishra
Patna, June 4
An under construction river bridge on Ganga linking Khagaria district with Sultanganj in Bhagalpur district on Sunday collapsed, but none was hurt.
A part of the same bridge on Sultanganj side had collapsed in April last year. The Chief Minister, Nitish Kumar had laid the foundation of the Rs 1750 crore river bridge in 2014 and it was expected to be ready by 2020.
On Sunday afternoon, 30 slabs of the pillar in a length of 500 metres collapsed like a pack of cards and plunged into the river Ganga. Some villagers who were coming to Sultanganj from Aguana Ghat in Khagaria district by boat captured the collapse of the bridge on their mobile sets. All the 30 slabs were seen plunging into the river within five seconds.
Samrat Chaudhury, state BJP president who represents Khagaria in the legislative council alleged sub standard materials were used in the construction. Last year too, other part of the bridge had collapsed and on Sunday another end of the proposed bridge collapsed.
Chief Minister on Sunday evening ordered an investigation into the bridge collapse and directed additional chief secretary of PWD, Prataya Amrut to visit Khagaria and submit inquiry report at the earliest.
Sanjiv Kumar, a local JDU legislator too alleged corruption in the construction of the bridge and demanded publication of the report of the expert committee which had probed the April,2022 bridge collapse.
