Bihar CM Nitish Kumar Urges IAS Officer to Speed Up JP Ganga Path Work Amid Bridge Collapses
Patna (Bihar) [India], July 10: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar was seen getting upset during an on-stage interaction with an IAS officer. He asked the officer to complete the extension of JP Ganga Path up to Kangan Ghat in Patna on time. Kumar said, “I touch your feet, please finish the work on time,” during the inauguration of the third phase of the JP Ganga Pathway.
This comes after several recent bridge collapses in the state, leading to political arguments between the ruling Janata Dal United and the opposition. The Bihar government has suspended several engineers from the Water Resources Department in Siwan and the Rural Works Department due to these incidents.
In the past few days, at least 10 bridges have collapsed in Bihar, raising concerns about infrastructure safety. A bridge in Saran district collapsed last week, marking the 10th such incident in just over two weeks. Five bridges in Araria, Siwan, East Champaran, Kishanganj, and Madhubani districts collapsed in June. On June 22, a 40-45-year-old bridge over the Gandak River in Siwan also fell.
An investigation by the state government’s flying squad revealed that engineers did not take necessary precautions or provide proper technical supervision. As a result, several engineers from the Water Resources Department in Siwan have been suspended. These include Amit Anand, Kumar Brajesh, Rajkumar, Chandramohan Jha, Simran Anand, Neha Rani, Mohd. Majid, Ravi Kumar Rajneesh, Rafiul Hoda Ansari, Ratnesh Gautam, and Prabhat Ranjan.
The government has announced that new bridges will be constructed at the risk and cost of the executive contractor. Additionally, a culvert in Araria was damaged on June 18. A four-member investigation team, led by Nirmal Kumar, Chief Engineer of the Rural Works Department in Purnia, has been formed to investigate the damaged bridge. As a result, Anjani Kumar, Ashutosh Kumar Ranjan, Virendra Prasad, and Manish Kumar have been suspended.