9 fall in 15 days: 3 more bridges collapse in Bihar, CM Nitish Kumar holds meeting

CHHAPRA/PATNA: Three more bridges, two in Siwan and one in Saran district, collapsed on Wednesday, taking the total number of fallen bridges in Bihar to nine in the past 15 days.
The fresh incidents come a day after Bihar rural works department minister Ashok Chaudhary announced the setting up of a three-member committee headed by the chief engineer to investigate the reasons behind the collapse of bridges.Both bridges that collapsed in Siwan district on Wednesday are on the Gandaki 'chhadi' (rivulet) in Maharajganj block. While one was constructed in 1982-83, the other was built in 1998.

The bridge in Saran district was from the colonial-era. There was no traffic on the bridges when they collapsed. Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar held on Wednesday a review meeting with officials of the road construction department and rural works department and directed them to initiate proper measures for the maintenance of bridges. "Get information about all the old bridges, make spot verifications and initiate steps for their proper upkeep," Nitish told officials at the meeting. He asserted that quality should be maintained in under-construction bridges and that they should be completed on time.
In Siwan, the incidents happened within 11 days of the collapse of a portion of another bridge, in Darounda area, on June 22. In Saran, a small British-era bridge, called "puliya" in local parlance, collapsed in Janata Bazaar block.