15 engineers suspended in Bihar after 12 bridges collapse in over two weeks

After a total of 12 bridges collapsed in Bihar over two weeks, the state government on Friday suspended as many as 15 engineers.

The Nitish Kumar-led Bihar government has also ordered the reconstruction of the new bridges. The cost of the construction will be imposed on the contractors found guilty.

The decision was taken after the flying squads submitted their reports, pointing out that engineers were negligent and monitoring was ineffective as the main reasons behind the collapse of the bridges.

Additional Chief Secretary of the State Water Resources Department, Chaitanya Prasad, accused the engineers of not taking proper care and highlighted the lack of diligence of contractors behind the incidents.

Briefing the media, Prasad stated, “It appears that engineers didn’t exercise proper care, and contractors were not diligent either.”

Earlier, with the collapse of one more bridge in Bihar’s Saran district on Thursday, the total number of such incidents rose to twelve over the past 17 days.

Speaking about the incidents, Secretary of the Rural Works Department (RWD) Deepak Singh said, “The bridge over the River Bakhra in Araria was reported damaged on June 18. Both state and central teams are conducting an enquiry, with four engineers suspended, and two others already suspended for unrelated reasons.

Payments to the contractors concerned will be withheld until the enquiry concludes, and final actions will be taken against the contractor and consultant after the final report is submitted by the inspecting teams.”

He further stated that the RWD is in constant touch with the district administration, seeking input to ascertain further details regarding the incident.