Bihar bridge collapse: State's 12th bridge falls in Saran in 17 days; PIL seeks structural audit

In the last 17 days, nearly 12 bridges have collapsed acrossthe Indian state of Bihar and the most recentone fell on Thursday(July 4) in Saran district.

As per District Magistrate Aman Samir, this is the third bridge collapse which has happened in Saran in just two days.

In the collapse of the 15-year-old bridge in the Gandaki River, no casualties were reported. The bridge connected villages in Saran to the neighbouring Siwan district.

The cause of the bridge collapse is under investigation. However, the officials spoke about the recent desilting work happening in the area.

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Among the three bridges in Saran, two were on the Gandak River, which was just a kilometre apart and had collapsed withintwo hours on Wednesday (July 3).

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The officialsconstructed one of the bridges in 2004 near the Dodh Nath Temple and the other was a British-era structure.

The third bridge, which was a 15-year-old structure built over the Gandaki, had fallen on Thursday (July 4).

The incident occurred a day after a survey of all old bridges in the state was ordered by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar so that those with urgent repairs could be identified.

The chief minister had appealed for improved bridge maintenance policies from both the rural worksand road construction departments.

The bridges have also collapsed in Siwan, Chhapra, Madhubani, Araria, East Champaran and Kishanganj districts.

PIL filed in SC for structural audit of all bridges in Bihar

Advocate Brajesh Singh has filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the Supreme Court which sought the Bihar government's directions for carrying out a thorough structural audit of all bridges.

The PIL also demanded theconstitution ofa high-level expert committee for identifying the weak bridges which may need to be strengthened or demolished.

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As per the petition, the collapse of bridges has raised concerns about the bridge infrastructures' safety and reliability in the region, especially taking into account that Bihar is the country's most flood-prone state.

"It is a matter of grave concern that in a state like Bihar, which is the most flood-prone state of India, the total flood-affected area in the state is 68,800 sq. km which is 73.06 per cent of the total geographical area. Hence such routine accrual of the incident of falling bridges in Bihar is more disastrous as the lives of people at large are at stake. Therefore the urgent intervention of this Hon'ble Court is required to save the lives of people, as the under-construction bridges before its accomplishment collapsed routinely," said the petitioner, in the PIL.

Meanwhile, Bihar Development Secretary Chaitanya Prasad said that 11 engineers of the water resources department were suspended, in the wake of the bridge collapse.

(With inputs from agencies)