Thrice in 9 years: Bihar bridge makes a habit of collapsing

A portion of superstructure of the under-construction Sultanganj-Aguwani Ghat bridge connecting Bhagalpur to Khagaria district collapsed and fell into the Ganga river in Bihar on Saturday.

- Dheeraj Kumar

This was a third time occurrence for the bridge. And the bridge has been only 45 per cent completed, indication of what lies ahead? Luckily, there was no report of any injury or casualty in the latest incident, which took place around 7 am on Saturday.

This is for the third time that the under-construction bridge being built at a cost of Rs.1,710 crore has collapsed since construction started in 2015. The foundation stone of the dream project of Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar was laid in 2014.

This time the portion between pillar numbers nine and 10 collapsed and fell into the swollen river. The superstrucsudden fall of the ture drew the attention of Kanwarias' (devotees) taking a bath in the river a little way off.