A bridge in Uttarakhand’s Pithoragarh district that is 65km from the Line of Actual Control between India and China collapsed on Monday under the weight of a truck carrying an excavator, cutting off the only road link to the LAC from the region.

The 60-metre Valley Bridge, which split from the middle and fell into the Senargar river, was also the sole link between Munsiyari town and 15 villages on the other side. Around 7,000 people in these villages depend solely on the 11-year-old bridge for their daily provisions as the hilly river with its sharp currents is not navigable. Food and other items for soldiers stationed at the LAC and near the border are also ferried via the bridge.

The truck was ferrying the excavator to a Border Roads Organisation road-laying site nearby.

Kharak Singh, a watchman who had been posted near the bridge, told reporters that the driver of the truck ignored his request not to ply on it with the excavator as together they weighed almost double the bridge’s permissible limit.

“The truck driver shouted at me and asked me to get lost. I kept telling him that the bridge had been shaking badly of late when heavy vehicles plied on it. The truck had reached the end of the bridge when it collapsed and the vehicle fell into the Senargar river,” the watchman said.

“We somehow brought Gowardhan Singh, the driver, and Lakhvindar Singh, the excavator operator, out of the river and took them to Munsiyari subdivision’s community health center, from where they were referred to Pithoragarh district hospital after being administered first aid,” said an eyewitness.

Gowardhan is from Uttarakhand while Lakhvindar hails from Punjab.

Kharak said the bridge was mostly used to transport food items for soldiers deployed on or near the border.

“The link between Munsiyari and over 15 villages on the other side —Thapa, Quirizimiya, Saipolo, Lilam, Mudpato, Bilju, Burfu, Tola, Panchhu, Rilkot, Laspa, Bui, Khilach, Ganghar and Milam — has snapped because of the bridge breaking,” Kharak said.

A senior officer of the Border Roads Organisation told The Telegraph on condition of anonymity that while the bridge had a capacity to withstand weights up to 18 tonnes, the truck and the excavator together weighed over 32 tonnes.

“As per guidelines, the excavator should have crossed the bridge separately before being reloaded onto the truck. The driver violated the norms and ignored warnings,” he said over phone.

“We will rebuild the bridge soon.”

Local government sources said on condition of anonymity that they had written to the home ministry seeking a probe into how a bridge that had been constructed in 2009 and repaired last month could collapse.