Bihar Bridge Collapse: The segment of the bridge being built on the Kosi river in Bihar at a cost of Rs 1200 crore under the Bharatmala project collapsed in Supaul on Friday morning. 10 workers were injured in this incident. A laborer died. According to the information, after the incident, all the engineers and workers of the construction company ran away. But the local people, showing humanity, took all the injured laborers to the hospital with the help of bikes.
Felt like an earthquake..
As soon as the bridge segment collapsed, there was so much vibration in the earth that people nearby thought that an earthquake had occurred. People started running out of their homes. Meanwhile, the sound of screaming workers was heard from the bridge construction site. People ran towards the work place fearing some untoward incident. Where people saw that many laborers were groaning on the sand due to injuries. After this, people started taking the injured laborers to the local hospital on bikes. The news of this spread like wildfire in the surrounding areas. A large number of people started reaching the construction site. After the incident, out of fear, all the engineers of the company engaged in the construction, the side in-charge and the workers resting in the adjacent tent ran away from the spot. But the local people maintained their position.
What happened on Friday morning?
This incident happened near Maricha village of Sadar police station area. It was told that on Friday morning a segment was being set up between pillar number 153-154. Meanwhile, the box segment was transported by truck. Which was being pulled with a crane. During this time, a clip at one corner became loose. Due to which the segment box fell on the truck. The truck was already standing on a segment box, due to which the second segment box also got washed away. Within no time about 12 boxes fell. This segment box was between two pillars.
The pin of the crane also broke, there was a struggle for rescue.
Experts say that the box segment fell due to the broken pin of the crane. After this, there was a wait for the crane to remove the broken debris. Due to the heavy crane, it could not reach the spot for a long time. People were suspecting that more workers might be trapped under the debris.
Two agencies are working
It is known that Transrail Lighting Limited is getting the work done on behalf of Bakour. Whereas Gammon Engineers and Contractors Private Limited is constructing the bridge on behalf of Bheja of Madhubani district. The length of the bridge including the approach road will be 13.3 kilometers. Under Bharatmala Project, this bridge is being built in the alignment of the four lane road being built between Umgaon of Madhubani to Mahishi Tarapith (Saharsa). This construction work is being done jointly by two agencies. This includes Gammon India and Trans Rail Lighting Private Limited. The bridge is being built in 5 packages under Bharatmala Project. This bridge is being constructed in one of these packages. This bridge is also very important from a strategic point of view. This bridge will connect the north-eastern states with Nepal, Bangladesh and Bhutan.
171 pillars have to be built for the bridge
A total of 171 pillars are being built in this bridge. Of these, construction of 166 pillars has been completed. There will be 36 pillars from Bakour side and 87 pillars from Bheja side. In this, 2.1 kilometer approach road is to be constructed from Bakour side and 01 kilometer approach road from Bheja side.
The work is to be completed this year
The end of this mega bridge being built between Bakour in Supaul district to Bheja in Madhubani district on Kosi is being directly connected to the embankments (eastern and western) built on both sides. For this reason this Mahasetu will become the longest in the country. The work of this bridge is to be completed this year. It was to be inaugurated in the year 2023, but it was delayed due to Corona and now it is possible in December 2024, but after the accident the construction work may get delayed.
One segment is 90 tons
Project Manager Pradeep Kashyap said that a total of 14 segment boxes were damaged in the incident. The weight of a segment box is 90 tonnes. If seen this way, 1260 tonnes of segment fell. Told that the work was started on 12 February 2020. Which was to be completed in December.