No casualties have been reported so far, but a guard who worked on the infrastructure remains missing. This Sunday, June 4, a bridge under construction in the Ganges collapsed like a house of cards. Residents of the Bihar region, present at the time of the disaster, filmed the spectacular fall of this long footbridge. "The bridge has already collapsed once this year and yet no attention has been paid to its construction," said Rakesh Kumar, a local resident, adding that he felt strong tremors resembling "an explosion" when the incident occurred.
The suspension bridge built in the state of Bihar was originally scheduled to be ready in 2019, but it has suffered numerous delays, according to local media. It had collapsed for the first time on April 30, 2022 due to a violent storm.
A $200 million project
The Indian authorities denounce construction defects. Large cracks weakened the bridge, reveals the local media ANI. The Bihar state government is accused of corruption and mismanagement. "This is a living example of corruption, the fact that such an important bridge, worth 1717 billion rupees (editor's note: 200 million dollars), collapsed like cards in the Ganges River. If the government had conducted a rigorous investigation, this would not have happened," said RK Singh, the Union of India's energy minister. The state government has called for an investigation into the case and Bihar's chief minister, Nitish Kumar, has vowed to "take strict measures".
