A portion of a bridge on NH 16 collapses
By Akshya Rout
Jajpur,July 18 : A portion of a 15 year old bridge on the National Highway 16 near Rasulpur block in Jajpur district collapsed on Tuesday morning . No injuries or fatalities have been reported as luck would have it , no vehicle was plying at that time on the bridge.
Serious questions were raised over the quality of the construction carried out by the National Highway Autority of India (NHAI) and construction company after a span of the bridge caved in .
Irate over the incident , many locals alleged poor quality of construction works as the reason behind the incident. Though the incident did not cause any casualty and major mishap, the locals have demanded stringent action against erring officials of NHAI and the construction company.
When contacted J. P Verma the Project Director of NHAI, Chandikhola said “The bridge was built in 2008 and it’s life span is 50 years. After knowing about the incident , I along with other officials rushed to the spot. Prima facie we are yet to know why this happened. But it looks like a structural failure. A Technical team will soon arrive to investigate the reason behind the incident’.
After the collapse of the bridge vehicular movement was stopped on one side of the National Highway-16 connecting Chennai and Kolkata.
Jajpur MP and BJD leader Sarmistha Sethi ,Senior Congress leader and former minister Sarat Rout blamed large scale corruption and irregularities as the reasons behind the collapse of the bridge.
