Portion of bridge on highway in Odisha collapses

BHUBANESWAR: A portion of a bridge on the National Highway-16 near Rasulpur block of Odisha's Jajpur district collapsed on Tuesday.

However, no one was hurt as there was no traffic on the bridge when the incident occurred in the early hours of the day.

The bridge is constructed on the Kuakhia River on the highway connecting Chennai and Kolkata.

Traffic has been diverted to another bridge constructed on the side of the collapsed bridge to pass opposite-direction vehicles.

Vehicles coming from both to-and-fro directions are passing through two single-line bridges, said a police official.

After getting information, senior officials from the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) reached at the spot and initiated an investigation.

As per a preliminary probe, the portion of the bridge constructed in 2006-07 collapsed due to structural failure, said J.P. Verma, project director, NHAI.

An expert team has been asked to reach the spot to ascertain the reasons behind the failure.

Action will be taken as per the findings of the investigation, he said, adding: “We will find out a way to restore traffic on the bridge.”

“After a vehicle passed, the bridge suddenly collapsed. Fortunately, no one was hurt in the mishap. However, traffic movement was disrupted for some time,” said Sridhar Das, a local resident who witnessed the collapse.

He alleged that the bridge collapsed due to the low quality of work done by the NHAI contractor.