Bridge portion did not collapse, it was planned demolition: Bihar govt after outrage over viral videos

The videos, shot by villagers on Sunday evening, had triggered a political storm with the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party claiming corruption and seeking the resignation of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. The bridge, for which Nitish had laid the foundation stone on February 23, 2014, was said to have been built at an estimated cost of Rs 1,700 crore.

The Bihar government has clarified that viral visuals showing the collapse of the under-construction bridge -- connecting Khagaria district with Bhagalpur -- were, in fact, that of a portion of the structure being deliberately demolished. 

According to state government officials, a portion of the under-construction bridge over the Ganga river were deliberately destroyed under expert advice in a planned manner. The portions that were demolished had design flaws, they said.

The videos, shot by villagers on Sunday evening, had triggered a political storm with the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party claiming corruption and seeking the resignation of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. The bridge, for which Nitish had laid the foundation stone on February 23, 2014, was said to have been built at an estimated cost of Rs 1,700 crore.

Bihar BJP chief Samrat Choudhary alleged that sub-standard materials were used to build the bridge. Claiming that the chief minister is least bothered about the development of Bihar, the state BJP chief demanded that Nitish should resign from his post following this incident.

The outrage prompted Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav and Additional Chief Secretary of Road Construction Department, Pratyay Amrit, to call a press conference urgently.

Briefing media persons, Tejashwi said, "A portion of this bridge had collapsed on April 30 last year. We had, thereafter, approached IIT-Roorkee, which is highly regarded for its expertise in construction matters, to conduct a study. It is yet to come up with a final report but experts who had studied the structure had informed us that there were serious defects."

"Therefore, it was decided that we must not wait for a final report or take any chance. So we went ahead with pulling down parts of the bridge. Today's incident was a part of such a preventive measure. Once the final report comes shortly, the state government would seek action like lodging of FIR and blacklisting the company that was awarded the contract," Pratyay said.