A small concrete bridge over a canal of the Bidyadhari river in North 24-Parganas’ Haroa collapsed on Wednesday morning, prompting residents to accuse the administration of allowing heavily loaded vehicles to ply on it.
The collapse of Baromasia bridge, which has a span of 20 metres, caused major resentment among the locals as it cut off around 30,000 people of about 15 villages from Haroa town.
The bridge had been constructed in 2009 under the PMGS, a central government-funded project, by dismantling a dilapidated causeway of the river canal.
The villagers have blamed the local Bakjuri gram panchayat, which allowed heavily loaded vehicles to ply on the bridge despite repeated objections, for the weakening of the structure. “In the early hours of Wednesday I heard a huge sound.… I rushed out apprehending an earthquake but found that the bridge had collapsed,” a local resident said.
“This bridge was our lifeline. Every day over a few thousand people cross the Bidyadhari canal using the bridge. Our children use this bridge to go to school. At least three schools, offices and banks are located on the other side of the bridge. Now we have to take a detour of about 5km to reach the other side,” said Haidar Seikh, a local resident.
“The local panchayat authorities are solely responsible for the collapse. They allowed the plying of heavily loaded vehicles of brick kilns on the bridge, ignoring its load-bearing capacity,” he alleged.
A large number of local residents gathered near the collapsed bridge on Wednesday when a team of PWD officials and district administrative officials led by block development officer Dipankar Das and Haroa panchayat samiti member Khaleq Mollah came for an inspection.
Khaleq Mollah said: “The grievance of the people is quite genuine. We would definitely check if there was any lapse on the part of the gram panchayat. At the same time we will try to rebuild the bridge as early as possible. In future, restrictions would definitely be imposed on plying over the bridge considering its load-bearing capacity.”
“Until it happens, we would install a temporary foot bridge so that they are not cut off at all,” he added.
