Bihar suspends 15 engineers following collapse of 12 bridges in two weeks

PTC News Desk: Following the two-week period in which 12 bridges collapsed in Bihar, the state administration suspended up to 15 engineers on Friday. The new bridges’ reconstruction has also been mandated by the Bihar government, which is led by Nitish Kumar. If the contractors are found guilty, they will be responsible for the construction costs.

The decision was made in response to the flying squads’ assessments, which indicated that the primary causes of the bridge collapses were incompetent engineers and inadequate supervision.

Chaitanya Prasad, the State Water Resources Department’s Additional Chief Secretary, blasted the engineers for not exercising enough caution and emphasised the contractors’ carelessness in causing the mishaps.

“It appears that engineers did not exercise proper care, and contractors were not diligent either,” Prasad told the journalists during a briefing.

Prior to this, the number of bridge collapses in Bihar’s Saran district increased to twelve during the previous seventeen days with the collapse of another bridge on Thursday.

Deepak Singh, the secretary of the Rural Works Department (RWD), discussed the incidents by saying, “On June 18, it was reported that the bridge across the River Bakhra in Araria was broken. Four engineers have been suspended, and two more have already been suspended for unrelated reasons, as part of an investigation being conducted by state and central teams. Payments to the affected contractors will not be made until the investigation is finished, and following the inspection teams’ submission of their final report, legal action against the contractor and consultant will be pursued.”

He added that the RWD is in continual communication with the district administration, soliciting their comments in order to obtain additional information about the occurrence.

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