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Girder of under-construction bridge collapses due to rain in Jharkhand's Giridih
The bridge was being built over the Arga river in Deori block, around 235 km from Ranchi, the state capital.
A girder of an under-construction bridge collapsed and a pillar got tilted due to heavy rain in Jharkhand's Giridih district on Saturday night, an official said.
There was no report of any injury or loss of life in the incident involving the bridge, which was being built over the Arga river in Deori block, around 235 km from Ranchi, the state capital.
“A single-span girder collapsed and a pillar got tilted. The contractor has been asked to rebuild the portion,” Vinay Kumar, Executive Engineer of Giridih's Road Construction Department, told PTI.
Also, while Kumar, the Executive Engineer, did not reveal the project cost, sources stated that the structure, which would have connected the remote villages in Giridih to those in the Jamui district in the neighbouring Bihar state.
Meanwhile, according to a second engineer, the casting on the collapsed girder was done only a week ago, and it would have taken at least 28 days for the casting to be strengthened.
Bridge collapse incidents in Bihar
The incident comes amid a series of mishaps involving bridges in Bihar, from which Jharkhand was carved out in November 2000. Bihar has witnessed as many as five incidents of bridge collapse over the past ten days, with mishaps in Araria on June 18, Siwan (June 22), East Champaran (June 23), Kishanganj (June 26) and Madhubani (June 28).
While the state's Nitish Kumar-led NDA government has come under sharp criticism for the mishaps, Union minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, an NDA ally and a former chief minister of Bihar, claimed that there was a ‘conspiracy’ to ‘defame’ the Bihar's NDA government.
"Two months ago, we didn’t witness any incidents of bridges collapsing in the state. Now, this is happening continuously, and I suspect a conspiracy by a few people to insult the government,” Manjhi said. However, he added that ‘necessary’ steps were being taken to ensure that such incidents were not repeated in the future.
