Bihar Bridge Collapse: Second Incident This Year, BJP MLA Blames Construction Company, Nitin Gadkari Gives Clarification

After the video of a bridge collapse in Bihar's Araria district went viral on social media, Union Road and Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari clarified that the bridge construction was not under the Union Road Transport Ministry.

Gadkari said that the construction work on the collapsed bridge was being done by the Rural Development Ministry of the Bihar government.

The bridge that collapsed was newly constructed over the Bakra river in Pararia village. However, no casualty was reported as the bridge was not yet open for the public.

The bridge was to connect the Kursa Kanta and Sikti areas of the Araria district but approach roads to it were not constructed.

Araria's Superintendent of Police (SP), Amit Ranjan asserted that officials reached the incident site to probe the matter. He added that the cause of collapse is not known yet.

MLA of the ruling alliance of JD(U) and BJP, who represents Sikti, Vijay Kumar Mandal blamed the construction company's owner for the collapse of a portion of the bridge.

He said, "The bridge has collapsed due to negligence by the construction company's owner. We demand that the administration should conduct an investigation."

This is the second such collapse in Bihar this year. In March, an under-construction bridge over the Kosi river collapsed in Supaul district killing one person and injuring 10 others.