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Three under-construction bridges collapsed in Bihar, two of which were to be built in 2022-2023 and one in 2023-24. Two people died in the two incidents. (Representative image: IANS)
All six deaths from bridge collapses reportedly occurred on bridges under construction
A total of 15 operational bridges and 11 under-construction bridges collapsed on India’s national highways in the past three fiscals, killing six people, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways informed the Lok Sabha on Thursday.
The ministry said it is primarily responsible for the development and maintenance of the country’s national highways, where several bridge collapses have occurred.
“As part of preparation of detailed project report for development works in parts of NH, the ministry has conducted a condition survey of existing bridges and repair/rehabilitation/reconstruction of existing bridges will be part of the corridor development project,” Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said in a written reply.
The ministry has also issued guidelines for inspection and condition survey of existing bridges and appropriate repair, restoration and reconstruction depending on the nature and severity of damage.
“The ministry has issued policy guidelines and model tender documents for real-time monitoring of structural health of bridges in continuous/discrete manner. The ministry has also launched a comprehensive Indian Bridge Management System for assessment of bridge condition and subsequent decision-making process for repair/rehabilitation/reconstruction,” the reply added.
Of the 15 normal bridges that collapsed, two each were in Haryana, Odisha and Manipur, and one each in Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Meghalaya, Sikkim, Uttar Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Arunachal Pradesh and Tripura. No casualties were reported in these normal bridge collapses.
All six deaths from bridge collapses were reported in bridges under construction. Three bridges under construction collapsed in Bihar, two in 2022-2023 and one in 2023-24. These incidents killed two people. Two bridges each collapsed in Odisha and Tamil Nadu, and one each in Delhi, Sikkim, Maharashtra and Kerala.
Two people died in the collapse of the Singham-Tharku bridge in Sikkim. The collapse was caused by excessive rainfall and glacial lake outburst flooding.
One person was killed when a bridge on National Highway 785 in Tamil Nadu collapsed due to a fault in the hydraulic jack while fixing the bearing.
In Delhi, one person was killed when a bridge collapsed on National Highway 248BB. The bridge collapsed due to a mechanical failure in its hydraulic jacks.
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