Bridge collapses within 24 hrs of concrete casting

Alok Mishra

Gopalganj: An underconstruction bridge under East and West Corridor on NH-28 collapsed on January 15, within 24 hours of its concrete casting on January 14 aturday near Dewapur village under Barauli police station in Go0palganj district. Agitated over the collapse of the bridge, the villagers chased away the workers engaged in construction works.

It may be mentioned here that work on four-lane is going on in Gopalganj under East and West Corridor by Punj Llyod Company, which had constructed several bridges earlier in the district.Under this project, the concrete casting of a small bridge was done on January 14. On Sunday evening, the bridge collapsed. As the news of the collapse reached the officials of the construction company, a group of labourers and engineers reached the spot and started removing the debris with the help of a JCB machine. When the villagers came to know about it, they chased away the labourers and engineers from the spot, alleging use of sub-standard materials in the construction of the bridge.

Gopalganj DM Rahul Kumar ordered a probe into the collapse of the underconstruction bridge. He said that bridge collapsed as the shuttering under it slipped. Stern action would be taken against the wrong doers after ingsubmission of report, he added. Acting on the directive of DM, a group of engineers reached at the site and took stock of the situation. Project Manager, NHI Manoj Kumar Pandey said that prima facie it seems that the bridge collapsed due to slipping of shuttering under the concrete casting.