E-Paper
Truck falls into drain along India-Pakistan border as bridge collapses
The decades-old bridge over the drain, situated along the Indo-Pakistan border, collapsed on Sunday while a truck loaded with concrete material was crossing over it
It seems that the government has failed to learn a lesson from the Muhawa bus accident that took place due to the poor condition of a bridge over a drain and claimed lives of seven children. The government’s failure to improve the condition of such bridges has caused another similar mishap near Khemkaran in Tarn Taran district.
The decades-old bridge over the drain, situated along the Indo-Pakistan border, collapsed on Sunday while a truck loaded with concrete material was crossing over it. The bridge could not afford the load of the truck and gave way. The truck fell into the drain. However, no causality was reported.
The persons, who were going to install lights at the barbed fence along the border, had a narrow escape during the accident. However, this has again highlighted the issue of poor and sad state of affairs of the bridges over the drains laid down by the government as part of the defence strategy.
Farmer leader Surjit Singh Bhoora, whose land is also situated across the barbed fence, said the bridge had been in a poor condition for the past several months and they had informed the administration in writing many a time. “However, nobody paid any attention. As if they were awaiting a tragedy to happen,” he said.
Another farmer Raghbir Singh Bhangala said the farmers have to visit their fields daily for cultivating crops. “Now when the bridge has collapsed, we will face many hardships to reach our fields,” he added.
The Muhawa school van tragedy that left seven kids dead in September 2016 brought to the fore the lurking danger due to dilapidated bridges in Amritsar and Tarn Taran villages.
During a hearing on a petition seeking direction to the government to make school transport safer, Punjab traffic adviser Navdeep Asija told the Punjab and Haryana high court that the Punjab Mandi Board identified around 59 unsafe bridges in Amritsar, with as many as 23 in the Attari market committee area.
Tarn Taran deputy commissioner Pardeep Sabharwal said they are preparing a list of the bridges which are in a poor condition and soon they would start work to revamp these bridges.
