Fourth bridge collapse in Bihar in just over a week, no casualties

In the fourth accident of its kind in just over a week a bridge caved in at Kishanganj district in Bihar on Thursday reported PTI citing officialsNo one was injured in the incident he saidThe bridge was built in 2011 over Madiya a small tributary that connects the Kankai river to the Mahananda Heavy rainfall in the catchment area in Nepal has led to a sudden rise in the water level One of the pillars of the bridge could not withstand the strong current District Magistrate Tushar Singla saidThe bridge situated in Bahadurganj block was 70 meters long and 12 meters wide he said reported PTIBoth ends of the bridge have been barricaded to prevent any type of movement while repair work was on he addedAs per the PTI report three incidents of bridge collapse were reported last week from Araria Siwan and Araria districtsMumbai Collapsed Bihar bridge contractor is building GMLRSP Singla Constructions which was constructing the nowcollapsed bridge in Bihar is currently building three bridges as part of the GoregaonMulund Link Road GMLR While a Congress leader has demanded the contractorrsquos removal the BMC is confident that there wonrsquot be any error because civic officials are constantly monitoring the work SP Singla Construction Pvt Ltd was on December 20 2021 awarded a contract of R66606 crore to build the flyoversSP Singla Constructions Pvt Ltd which was awarded the contract on December 20 2021 is building a sixtier flyover at Ratnagiri Hotel chowk in Goregaon circular elevated way at Khindipada in Mulund and another sixtier flyover at Hedgewar chowk in Mulund according to officialsCongress leader Ravi Raja the former corporator and former leader of opposition in the BMC has sent a letter to civic commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal seeking to halt the work by the contractorIn his letter Raja mentioned ldquoThe same company was constructing the bridge over the river Ganga in Bhagalpur district of Bihar which collapsed on Sunday The bridge collapsed due to a design and technical error Even earlier the bridge had collapsed while under construction It has been found that the construction of the company is of very poor qualityrdquoStating that the contractor has already started the work on GMLR bridges Raja cautioned that the Bihar incident could repeat ldquoTherefore the municipal corporation should not give any work to this company and the work should be reviewedrdquo he said while demanding that the firm be blacklistedBMC Additional Commissioner P Velrasu however said ldquoBoth Bihar and GMLR works cannot be compared as they are technically different The GMLR work is being monitored by the BMCrsquos Bridges Department as well as a third party PMC Technogem I have also instructed the Bridges Departmentrsquos chief engineer to review the work this week againrdquoAccording to the contract SP Singla is also responsible for maintenance of the bridges for five years after completion The contract also included reconstruction of a twolane subway at Tansa pipelineThe company is also involved in the work of structuring and construction of a 592metrelong permanent cablestayed bridge at Basohli on river Ravi in Jammu and Kashmir