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15 students injured after hanging bridge collapses in Assam’s Karimganj
The bridge connects Kashinathpur with Cheragi Bazar. A large part of the Ratabari area is connected to Ramkrishna Nagar of Karimganj district with this bridge.
As many as 15 students sustained injuries after a hanging bridge collapsed while the students were returning from school in Assam’s Karimganj district. The incident happened in Nivia area under Ratabari assembly constituency on Monday afternoon, officials said. The hanging bridge is over the Singla River which flows from the hills of Mizoram. The students were returning from Cheragi Vidyapith High School after finishing their classes.
According to the onlookers, around a hundred students stepped on the bridge together when suddenly it collapsed. Some of the students managed to cross the bridge but most of the students fell into the river. Most of them are students of class IX and they knew swimming so they helped in rescuing each other. Around 30 students got injured, some of them had minor injuries and recovered with initial treatment. However, some students sustained severe injuries and they were taken to a nearby government health centre with the local people.
A resident, Gyash Uddin said, “During the rainy season, the river is in spate. The students were fortunate enough that school was closed during the rainy days. If this incident happened at that time, we could have lost few students. This shows the poor condition of basic infrastructure in our area.”
He also said that the present member of parliament from Karimganj constituency was a three-time MLA from this area. There was a long pending demand for the RCC bridge on the Singla river. However, three years back, instead of an RCC bridge, the administration constructed a hanging bridge.
“We requested the government and administration to construct an RCC bridge because thousands of locals, including students, are dependent on this. Singla River becomes a high-risk area in the rainy season. The hanging bridge increases the risk for the students. After the construction of the hanging bridge, it wasn’t even maintained properly by the administration in the last 3 years. Today’s incident is a wake-up call for all of us that something bigger can happen in future if we keep ignoring this issue,” he added.
The bridge connects Kashinathpur with Cheragi Bazar. A large part of the Ratabari area is connected to Ramkrishna Nagar of Karimganj district with this bridge which is used by thousands of people regularly. After the state government ordered the opening of schools recently, students in a large number started using this bridge.
Deputy Commissioner of Karimganj district Khageswar Pegu has ordered an enquiry and asked the local circle officer to look into the matter. He said, “It was an unfortunate incident and we are now investigating the reason behind this. I have already involved a circle officer to look into the matter closely. Apart from investigating this matter, our officials will go through a survey to find out a permanent solution.”
