In the wake of the Begusarai bridge collapse, Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party (RLJP) leader Sanjay Yadav on Monday expressed concern for over 30,000 local people who have to face the brunt of lack of connectivity.
According to Yadav, students and sick people will be the ones facing the maximum problem.
"A population of more than 30,000 in this area has been affected because of the bridge collapse. The students and the sick people here have to bear the brunt of this.
"Due to the lack of proper transport facilities, neither the students get the facility of education nor the sick people get medical facilities at the right time.
"The people here have to travel through several villages to reach the main road on NH-31. The people are facing a lot of trouble. At night, if someone wants to come, then the family members have to be called on NH 31 or a reserve vehicle to the village," said Sanjay Yadav.
According to locals, despite the construction of the bridge on the Gandak River, there was a ban on the movement of vehicles on it. People here had to travel a long distance via Tad Tar, Umesh Nagar to reach the main road NH-31.
Due to the non-availability of the access road, no passenger vehicles used to run on the bridge. After a long-standing demand, in the year 2012-13, on the initiative of the then MLA cum Social Welfare Minister of Bihar Government, Parveen Amanullah, the process of construction of the bridge on Budhi Gandak river started in 2016 and was completed in 2020.
However, the bridge was not made operational and recently developed cracks in many places, raising questions.
A portion of the bridge in Sahebpur Kamal of Bihar's Begusarai district collapsed and fell into the river, but there was no casualty reported.
The bridge was built at a cost of over Rs 13 crore by Maa Bhagwati Construction Begusarai and was awaiting its inauguration.
As per information, the front part of the 206-metre-long bridge had developed cracks between pillars no 2 and 3 and collapsed on Sunday.
Nobody was on the bridge at the time of the incident, said the administration on Monday. The bridge was constructed under the Chief Minister National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) scheme.
In October, a total of 134 persons lost their lives after a century-old suspension bridge fell into the Machchhu River of Morbi, Gujarat.
( With inputs from ANI )
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