Bihar: Four people are in jail after the Kishanganj bridge collapse
A day after a span of a 100-meter under-construction bridge over the Mechi River on a 94-long stretch of NH-327 E between Galgaliya in Kishanganj and Araria had collapsed at Gorichak in Bihar’s Kishanganj, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) suspended four people, including two engineers and two project managers.
Four people, including two engineers team leaders and bridge engineers of independent engineers, M/s Chaitanya Project Consultancy Pvt Ltd RN Jha and Mukesh Kumar, were suspended, according to regional officer (NHAI) Abdhesh Kumar, who confirmed the action on Sunday.
He said, “M/s GR Galgaliya Bahadurganj Highway private limited Ram Gopal Rana and Shailesh Kumar, respectively, have also been suspended in addition to senior project manager and deputy project manager (structural) of Concessionaire.
According to preliminary inquiry, the Meachi River, on which this bridge is built, has lately seen a dramatic spike in water flow from Nepal. Additional early examinations have also indicated that the P2-P3-P4 spans were used to channelize the whole river during construction, restricting water flow and causing undue scouring of the sandy river bottom. According to Kumar, this may have contributed to the pile foundation at P3’s settlement.
The RO reported that on June 23 in the afternoon, “an unexpected settlement of 600 mm (approx.) occurred at the pile foundation beneath pier P3 on Major Bridge at CH 24+461 having span configuration of 1x20m + 5x36m + 1x20m (total length 222 m) with PSC girder superstructure resting over spherical bearings on an RCC circular column and pile foundation consisting of four piles of 1500 mm diameter.”
