Bridges in Bihar are falling like a house of cards with four more collapsing on Wednesday, taking the tally to 10 within a span of 16 days.
The latest bridges to crumble include three in Siwan district and one in Saran district.
The bridges that collapsed in Siwan were built across the Chhari river in Deoria, Navtan and Dhamahi villages in Maharajganj subdivision. Though no one was killed or injured, the connectivity of around 200 villages was hit.
“All the three bridges are small ones, and were built over the Chhari river in the 1980s and 1990s. The 117km river had turned dry. The Bihar government recently revived it and it now has five to six feet of water,” Siwan district magistrate Mukul Kumar Gupta told The Telegraph.
“But the presence of water and its increased flow due to heavy rainfall in the past two days put pressure on the pillars of the bridges and caused erosion around them. All these bridges were built with bricks unlike the modern ones that are made of concrete,” Gupta added.
On whether they were maintained properly, Gupta said protective measures were taken to check erosion around the pillars.
However, local residents claimed that the bridges were not maintained and they had been demanding their upkeep for a long time. “The river was desilted recently and its course was widened. Lots of mud around the pillars was removed during the process. We had objected to it, but nobody listened,” said Shiv Kumar of Tewta panchayat near Navtan in Maharajganj.
The bridge that collapsed in Saran was constructed in 2004 over a branch of the Gandak near Dhodhnath Temple in Janata Bazar. Its destruction has affected the connectivity of two-dozen villages.
Before this, six bridges had collapsed between June 18 and 30 in Araria (June 18), Siwan (June 22), East Champaran (June 23), Madhubani (June 28) and Kishanganj (June 27 and June 30) districts.
“Four bridges fell down today (Wednesday). The chief minister is silent, the two deputy chief ministers are quiet. The NDA government of 18 years in the state should say who is responsible,” RJD leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav said.
The collpased bridges belong to different departments, including rural works and rural development, and other agencies depending on the type of schemes. Some were constructed from the funds of MPs or MLAs.
“Three bridges that collapsed in Araria, East Champaran and Madhubani belong to our department. We have suspended four engineers in this connection. Probe teams have visited the sites and are awaiting test reports from IIT and NIT Patna. We will take further action against the contractors and DPR makers on the basis of the final reports,” rural works department additional chief secretary Dipak Kumar Singh said.
A member of the probe committee formed by the state government told The Telegraph that the reasons behind the bridge collapse can be broadly divided into three categories — natural, man-made and geo-technical
On Wednesday evening, chief minister Nitish Kumar chaired a meeting on the maintenance of roads and bridges. “Inspect all the old bridges in the state, assess their condition and take necessary steps for their proper maintenance,” Nitish
told the officers.
