A newly-constructed bridge collapsed in Bihar’s Araria on Tuesday before the inauguration. No casualties were reported. The bridge, built at the cost of Rs 12 Crore on the Bakra River connected Sikti and Kursakanta blocks. This is the second bridge collapsed in last one year in Bihar.
A video of the incident was widely shared on social media.
Earlier this year in March, at least one person was killed and 10 others were injured after an under-construction bridge collapsed in Bihar’s Supaul. The incident took place at Maricha, between Bheja and Bakaur, when a slab of an under-construction bridge being built over the Kosi River collapsed.
In June 2023, over 190 meters of the completed portion of the Aguani-Sultanganj four-lane under-construction bridge in Bihar’s Bhagalpur collapsed and submerged in the River Ganga.
Around 100 metres of this under-construction bridge from Sultanganj-end had fallen into the river the year before too.
Then-Bihar Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav had said, “All segments will be technically analysed to know the exact reason behind it. This was the second collapse. After the first incident, an inquiry into the reasons was called in November 2022. The probe was being done by the IIT Bombay, IIT Roorkee and National Institute of Information Technology (NIIT) professors to find the technical reason behind the incident. IIT Roorkee attributed the bridge collapse on April 30, 2022 to a thunderstorm. We had doubts over its design and had decided to demolish it and reconstruct the bridge.”