A day after the collapse of a portion of the under-construction Aguani Ghat-Sultanganj bridge on river Ganga, the state road construction department (RCD) is likely to blacklist the firm, SP Singla Construction Ltd, which was constructing it. The bridge was supposed to connect Khagaria and Bhagalpur districts.
The RCD on Monday served a show-cause notice on the firm and suspended the executive engineer of its Khagaria division besides issuing show-cause notice to the managing director of Bihar Rajya Pul Nirman Nigam Limited. The Khagaria side of the bridge collapsed on Sunday approximately 14 months after its Sultanganj side pillar number 5 had fallen on April 30, 2022.
The RCD has decided to demolish the leftover span of the bridge and awaits the “structural audit report” of its design by IITRoorkee, which had been entrusted with the task after the fall of Sultanganj side of the bridge last year.
Additional chief secretary (RCD) Pratyaya Amrit said a show-cause notice has been served to the construction company before blacklisting it. The department has also ordered demolition of the one span left. Talking about the administrative action, Amrit said, “Executive engineer of Khagaria division has been suspended and assistant engineer has been changed.
Showcause notice has been served on the MD of BRPNNL.” He also said at a press conference on Sunday that a new tender will be floated for the bridge with a new design and they have serious doubts over the structural design of the present one. He said after a crack in pier 5 of the bridge in April last year, which had led to the fall of 19 segments on both sides, they had roped in IIT-Roorkee to find out the reason and to know whether the design was safe or not.
The department had also dismantled 54 segments then. He said much against the wishes of the firm constructing the bridge, “we could feel that if one pier had a complaint, then others too will have issues. So we had decided to bring down the structure after the submission of the report which is about to come on Tuesday”.
While addressing the media with deputy CM Tejashwi Prasad Yadav on Sunday, Pratyaya had also said a new DPR will be made and fresh work will be started. Tejashwi, who is also the RCD minister, said the loss incurred will be borne by the construction company.