Bhagalpur bridge collapse: Bihar Govt slaps show cause notice to construction company

"A show cause notice is being issued to the construction company, and action will be taken against the contractors and engineers involved in the project who have already been removed. The bridge will be constructed in a time-bound manner as it is a dream project of CM," said Bihar Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav.

The bridge was constructed to link Bhagalpur and Khagaria districts over the river Ganges. It involved a cost of over Rs 1,770 crore and was supposed to be completed by 2019. The foundation stone of the structure was laid in February 2014, by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.

"When I was in opposition, I had raised the issue regarding pier number 5 of the bridge and at that time minister handed over the investigation to IIT Roorkee and later on the basis of reports from IIT a decision to demolish the pier has taken," said Tejashwi further.

Meanwhile, As the politics over the bridge collapse in Bihar gained momentum, the state Minister and elder brother to Tejashwi, Tej Pratap Yadav accused Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of demolishing the bridge.

"BJP has demolished the bridge. We are building the bridge and they are demolishing it," Tej Pratap Yadav told reporters on Monday.

On the other hand, a PIL has been filed in the Patna High Court seeking an independent inquiry into the collapse of the Aguwani-Sultanganj bridge in Bihar's Bhagalpur on Sunday.

The petitioner, Manibhushan Pratap Sengar, in his writ petition, sought an independent probe instead of a departmental inquiry and action against SP Singla Company, involved with the construction of the bridge.

The PIL also sought recovery of losses of thousands of crores to the exchequer due to the bridge's collapse.

Additional Chief Secretary for Bihar Road Construction Department Pratyaya Amrit on Tuesday said that the investigation into the collapse of the under-construction bridge in Bihar's Bhagalpur will be completed soon adding that a new bridge shall be constructed.

While talking to ANI, Pratyaya Amrit said, "We will try to complete the investigation at the earliest. We have served a show-cause notice to SP Singla and Company as to why they should not be blacklisted. They have been given 15-day time to reply. For serious dereliction of duty, the Executive Engineer of Bihar Rajya Pul Nirman Nigam posted at Khagaria has been put under suspension and departmental proceedings have started. The Managing Director of Bihar Bridge Construction Corporation has also been show caused why there was a delay when the instructions were very clear to demolish Pier 5 completely. A new bridge will be constructed. We will try to prioritise it so that the work on this can start after the monsoon." (ANI)