Patna: An under-construction portion of the Bakhtiyarpur-Tajpur Ganga Mahasetu in Bihar’s Patna district collapsed on Sunday night. “Replacing bearings is a routine exercise. There is no report of any casualty. We are going to the spot to inspect the work,” Bihar State Road Development Corporation Limited (BSRDCL) chief general manager Prabin Chandra Gupta told PTI. The construction of the Bakhtiyarpur-Tajpur Ganga Mahasetu is being overseen by the BSRDCL.
The incident took place while changing the bearings of the girders of the Bakhtiyarpur-Tajpur Ganga Mahasetu. While placing the girders on the pillars, one of them fell. Patna District Magistrate Chandrashekhar Singh told PTI, “During routine work, a girder of the under-construction bridge on the Bakhtiyarpur side fell.”
The construction of this project has been going on for the last several years. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar laid the foundation stone for the construction of 5.57 km long Bakhtiyarpur-Tajpur Ganga Mahasetu in June 2011. The total cost of this project was estimated to be Rs 1,602.74 crore. After the completion of the project, this bridge will connect National Highway 28 in Samastipur and NH 31 in Patna.
The project is aimed at reducing the traffic load on Mahatma Gandhi Setu in Patna and Rajendra Setu in Mokama. The incident is being seen in the backdrop of collapse of more than a dozen bridges in several districts of Bihar in recent times.
Leader of Opposition in Bihar Assembly Tejashwi Yadav alleged that the bridge on the approach road of Samastipur-Bakhtiyarpur-Tajpur Ganga Mahasetu, which is under construction at a cost of Rs 1603 crore, collapsed. Tejashwi issued a statement here today and alleged, “A week ago, the bridge constructed on Barnar river in Jamui at a cost of crores of rupees also collapsed, while the Chief Minister had allegedly inspected it a few days ago.” He alleged, “The foundation of the 20-year-old National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government is based on commission, bribery, institutional corruption, financial irregularities, illegal recovery and organized loot by criminals and officials. Will Prime Minister Modi tell whether the continuous collapse of bridges in Bihar is a corrupt coincidence or an experiment?”