A day after an under-construction bridge over the Ganga river collapsed in Bihar's Bhagalpur on Sunday, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has vowed to take strict action against those responsible for the incident.
"The bridge that collapsed on Sunday collapsed last year too. I have instructed officials to take strict action. It is not being constructed correctly and that's why it is collapsing again. The department will look into it and action will be taken," Nitish Kumar told ANI.
The chief minister had directed the Building Construction Department's additional chief secretary Pratyaya Amrit to constitute an enquiry committee to investigate the matter and take strict action against the erring officials.
This comes as the state government officials claimed the portions of the under-construction bridge were deliberately destroyed in a planned fashion under expert advice as it had design flaws.
The bridge was supposed to connect Khagaria district with Bhagalpur.
After the video showing the bridge collapsing went viral, Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav and Additional Chief Secretary of Road Construction Department Pratyay Amrit held a hurried press conference. "A portion of this bridge collapsed on April 30 last year. We had, thereafter, approached IIT-Roorkee, which is esteemed for its expertise in construction matters, to conduct a study. It is yet to come up with a final report but experts who had studied the structure had informed us that there were serious defects," Yadav said at the press conference.
Amrit, who took over, added, "It was decided that we must not take any chance and wait for a final report. So we went ahead with pulling down parts of the bridge."
The official added that the state would initiate actions like filing a case and blacklisting the construction company after the final report comes.
The bridge was said to have involved an estimated cost of Rs 1,700 crore. "Last year, a portion of this bridge had given away in a thunderstorm. It was an incident which was widely talked about and I strongly raised it in my capacity as the then Leader of the Opposition. Upon coming to power, we ordered an inquiry and sought expert opinion," said Yadav, in an apparent riposte to the BJP, now in opposition, which sought the CM's resignation over the issue.
Yadav disclosed that "many structural defects" have been pointed out by experts and "we have already pulled down many portions which have been flagged as particularly vulnerable. Today's incident confirms our worst apprehensions".
No casualties or injuries were reported in the incident that took place in the evening and was caught on camera by some bystanders.
The BJP had hit out at the state government following the incident, calling for the resignation of Nitish Kumar.
The bridge was being constructed at a cost of more than Rs 1, 700 crore and it was supposed to have been completed by November, 2019. To this, the RJD responded that the construction took place "during the tenures of Mangal Pandey, Nand Kishore Yadav and Nitin Nabin" as road construction ministers and asked whether the BJP would, therefore, take the blame.
"This bridge is of great importance for north Bihar where connectivity will greatly improve once it begins to function. We are committed to completing the project after setting right everything that has been wrong," Yadav said.
(With inputs from PTI)