Part of under-construction bridge collapses in India for second time in a year

An Indian state government on Monday ordered a probe into the collapse of a portion of an under-construction bridge over the Ganges River over the weekend, the second time the structure has crashed in a year.

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No casualties were reported with no movement of people or vehicles on the bridge when nearly 250 meters (820 feet) of the concrete surface connecting pillars crashed into the river on Sunday.

Videos of the collapse spread on social media.

“Those found guilty will not be spared,” Bihar state’s top elected official, Nitish Kumar, said in a statement. A portion of the bridge on the other side collapsed in April last year.

India’s infrastructure has long been marred by safety concerns, sometimes leading to major disasters on highways and bridges. Builders often use poor quality construction materials to cut costs.

The bridge collapse was criticized by the Bharatiya Janata Party, which is the opposition party in the state. The state government is headed by Kumar’s regional party, the Janata Dal-United (People’s Party).

BJP spokesman Shehzad Poonwalla described it as “the bridge of corruption.”

The construction of the 3.6-kilometer (1.9-mile) long bridge started in 2014, but it suffered delays and was scheduled to be inaugurated later this year connecting the town of Bhagalpur with Khagaria, about 250 kilometers (155 miles) east of Patna, the state capital.

It was being built by a private company at a cost of 17 billion rupees ($208 million).

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