How The 4-Lane Bihar Bridge Fell Apart: Poor Design, Missed Deadlines, And A ‘Cover-Up’

Although the collapse of the Sultanganj-Aguwani bridge in Bihar has many people scratching their heads, it is not unexpected. Its flawed design and shoddy construction came to light when it collapsed into two halves and fell into the water below it, promising to give visitors a unique view of the Ganga River’s majesty at a time when the nation was reeling from the shocking tragedy of the Odisha train accident.

A 200-meter section of roughly 30 bridge slabs collapsed on Sunday, and a video of the event quickly went viral on social media. In any case, it wasn’t the first time the bridge that united the districts of Bhagalpur and Khagaria in Bihar gave way. It had a similar fright only 14 months before, in April of last year, when a couple pillars toppled as a result of a loose wire during a rainstorm.

The tragedy served as a reminder of the many previous bridge failures that have happened in Bihar, even though no injuries were recorded. In response to criticism over the subpar building practices and safety regulations, it also spurred the Nitish Kumar-led administration to launch a probe.

CM Nitish Kumar lay the cornerstone for the building of the mammoth four-lane bridge, a Rs 1,700 crore project, in 2014. By 2020, the bridge was expected to connect the districts of Bhagalpur and Khagaria. But it failed to meet a number of completion dates.

The fact that the bridge fell in portions owing to wind and rain last year has been one of the main complaints the administration has faced. This time, its weight caused it to give way. The use of inferior building materials to save costs stands out as the cause.

A reoccurring issue noted in many of the previous cave-in occurrences of highways, bridges, and expressways is the use of subpar materials as a fast fix for large projects. Union Minister Nitin Gadkari was surprised by the official’s response to the issue when the bridge fell for the first time last year. I don’t see how a bridge collapse may be caused by high winds, he had stated. There must be a mistake.

The Bihar government attempted to minimize the disaster by defending the bridge collapse by claiming that the bridge was already slated for demolition due to major structural flaws.

You may remember that on April 30 of last year, a section of this bridge had fallen. At a press conference, deputy chief minister Tejasvi Yadav said, “We had then approached IIT-Roorkee, which is renowned for its expertise in construction matters, to conduct a study. The final collapse was simply an indication that concerns about the structural stability of the bridge were accurate.

Although the final report has not yet been produced, specialists who have examined the structure have told us that it has severe flaws, he added.

According to Pratyay Amrit, the additional chief secretary of the road construction department, the state chose to proceed with the destruction and “not take a chance and wait for a final report.”

“Therefore, we proceeded with demolishing portions of the bridge. As reported by news agency PTI, “Today’s incident was a part of such a precautionary drill.

Although the project’s administrative approval was granted on November 14, 2013, by the then-Nitish Kumar-led Bihar government, the project’s completion date was later rescheduled to June 30, 2023, according to the most recent information posted by the BRPNN on its website on May 29.

According to the most recent BRPNN statistics, “work related to the foundation and sub-structure of the bridge had been fully completed until April 2023, but only 84.3 per cent of work related to super-structure was completed.”

The Bihar Rajya Pul Nirman Nigam (BRPNN) has already given a show-cause notice on the Haryana-based business that received the contract, requesting that it respond within 15 days of the event. The executive engineer was also suspended by the involved department for failing to monitor the quality of the job.

The BJP, which is now in opposition due to the rift with Nitish Kumar, has been blaming “corruption” and calling for the chief minister’s resignation in the meanwhile.