BHAGALPUR/JAMMU: An under-construction bridge over the Ganga river collapsed in Bihar on Sunday, costing the exchequer a total of Rs 1750 Crore of the taxpayers’ money. This is the second time that the bridge has collapsed, testifying the level of corruption.
While the Bihar government officials claimed that the bridge had design flaws and some portions of it were deliberately destroyed in a planned fashion under expert advice, a further probe in the development has revealed that it was a technical flaw in the competitive bidding behind the collapse of this, and a number of other developmental projects across the country.
The Aguwani-Sultanganj bridge was supposed to connect Khagaria district with Bhagalpur. Considered the dream project of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, the bridge collapsed, taking along with it Rs 1750 crore of the tax payers’ money.
As the political parties began their mud-slinging, The Earth News reached out to a number of experts across the country and learnt that a number of development projects have been affected due to one technical flaw in the competitive bidding.
“For any project, there is an upper circuit to the bid amount. Let’s say, the government projects that a bridge is estimated to be built at Rs 2 Crore and fixes 10% as the upper circuit, thus taking the bidding upto Rs 2.20 Crore,” an expert informed The Earth News.
However, there is no lower circuit.
“In their attempt to bag the project, the contractors bid very low, as low as Rs 1 Crore for the same bridge which the government estimated to be built at Rs 2 Crore. And once the contractor gets the project, he will obviously resort to lower-quality material in constructing the bridge,” the expert explained.
Another expert confirmed the same and said that a number of projects are either delayed or remain incomplete due to this reason.
“And if some of these projects are somehow completed, their fate hangs in balance just like the Bihar bridge,” he added.
This is another jolt to public money, aided by extra-involvement of bureaucracy in the technical matters, another expert, The Earth News reached out to, said.
“Like upper ceiling, the government must fix a lower circuit so that the bidders cannot bid below a certain percentage, which could be same as upper circuit,” he said.
As Images of the mishap that took place in Khagaria evoked immediate criticisms from the opposition, Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav and Additional Chief Secretary of Road Construction Department, Pratyay Amrit, held a hurried press conference.
“It may be recalled that a portion of this bridge had collapsed on April 30 last year. We had, thereafter, approached IIT-Roorkee, which is esteemed 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,” Yadav said at the press conference.
Amrit, who took over, added, “It was decided that we must not take any chance and wait for a final report. So we went ahead with pulling down parts of the bridge. Today’s incident was a part of such a preventive exercise”.
Once the final report comes, which is expected shortly, the state government would contemplate action like lodging of FIR and blacklisting of the company which was awarded the contract, he said.
The bridge was said to have involved an estimated cost of Rs 1,700 crore.
As images of the collapsing portion were beamed on media outlets, state BJP president reacted strongly and demanded the resignation of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
Choudhary said the incident shows that “corruption is rampant” under the rule of the Nitish Kumar-led Bihar government.
“Sub-standard materials were used for the construction of the bridge. The CM is least bothered about the development of Bihar…he is busy on his tour. He must resign from his post after this incident.”
Notably, one labourer died and another was injured after a portion of an under-construction bridge collapsed in Nalanda district in November last year.
