The Bihar Government on Tuesday slapped a show cause notice on construction firm SP Singla Company, after the collapse of the Aguwani-Sultanganj bridge in Bhagalpur on Sunday evening.
“A show cause notice is being issued to the construction company, and action will be taken against the contractors and engineers involved in the project, who have already been removed. The bridge will be constructed in a time-bound manner as it is a dream project of CM,” said Bihar Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav. The bridge was constructed to link Bhagalpur and Khagaria districts over the Ganges. It was worth over Rs 1,770 crore and was initially slated for completion by 2019. The foundation stone of the structure was laid in February 2014, by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
“When I was in Opposition, I had raised the issue regarding Pier Five of the bridge and at that time, the Minister handed over the investigation to IIT Roorkee and later on the basis of reports from IIT a decision to demolish the pier was taken,” the Deputy CM further said.
Meanwhile, state Minister and elder brother of the Deputy CM, Tej Pratap Yadav, accused Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of demolishing the bridge.
“BJP has demolished the bridge. We are building the bridge and they are demolishing it,” Tej Pratap told reporters on Monday. On the other hand, a PIL has been filed in the Patna High Court seeking an independent inquiry into the collapse of the Aguwani-Sultanganj bridge that occurred on Sunday.
The writ petition sought an independent probe instead of a departmental inquiry and action against the SP Singla Company, which was involved in the construction of the bridge.
The PIL also sought the recovery of losses worth thousands of crores to the exchequer due to the collapse. Additional Chief Secretary for Bihar Road Construction Department Pratyaya Amrit said on Tuesday, “We will try to complete the investigation at the earliest. We have served a show-cause notice to SP Singla and Company as to why they should not be blacklisted. They have been given a 15-day period to reply. For serious dereliction of duty, the Executive Engineer of Bihar Rajya Pul Nirman Nigam posted at Khagaria has been put under suspension and departmental proceedings have started. The Managing Director of Bihar Bridge Construction Corporation has also been given a show cause regarding the delay when the instructions were very clear to demolish Pier Five completely. A new bridge will be constructed. We will try to prioritise it so that the work on this can start after the monsoon.”