Another bridge collapses in Bihar, this time in Kishanganj

A portion of a 13-year-old bridge collapsed in Bihar’s Kishanganj on Wednesday evening, cutting off 40,000 people in dozens of villages from the mainland. This is the fourth such incident in Bihar in the past one week.

The 70-metre-long and 12-metre-wide bridge, built under the Mukhyamantri Gram Sadak Yojana in 2011 at a cost of ₹25 lakh, caved in due to the force of floodwaters triggered by incessant rainfall. No casualty has been reported so far.

The administration has put barricades on either side of the bridge and stopped the traffic. The bridge is located at Shrawan Chowk near Bansbari village under Bahadurganj block of Kishanganj district.

“We have written to the department after regularly monitoring it,” Shrawan Sahni, executive engineer of the rural works department (RWD), said, adding “We visited the site on Wednesday evening and later traffic movement on it was stopped completely”.

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Circle officer (CO) Ashish Kumar said, “The traffic on the bridge has been stopped and guards have been deputed. The bridge was already damaged and only light traffic was allowed.

“Due to torrential rains in the catchment areas of Nepal, the Mariya River got flooded and one portion of the bridge gave way,” the CO said. “The bridge was already in need of repairs and the department concerned has already been intimated.”

The bridge collapse at Kishanganj happened at a time when experts are investigating the reason behind the collapse of a bridge in neighbouring Araria district.

The 183-metre-long bridge, built at a cost of ₹12 crore, collapsed in Araria on June 18 just before inauguration.

On June 23, a portion of an under-construction bridge, being built under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, collapsed hours after the concrete casting in West Champaran district. On June 22, a small bridge on a rivulet of Gandak caved in under the impact of sudden flow of water in Maharaganj block of Siwan district.