Hours after the collapse of the under-construction bridge near Bheden in Bargarh district, police arrested Rural Development (RD) Department Assistant Executive Engineer Kamalakanta Taria and Junior Engineer Manoranjan Mohapatra on Monday.
Earlier, the RD Department had placed Executive Engineer Amulya Mohapatra along with Assistant Executive Engineer Taria and Junior Engineer Mohapatra under suspension for negligence in duty. Sources said Executive Engineer Mohapatra and the contractor have gone underground fearing their arrest.
On the day, RD Department Chief Engineer Bharat Chandra Pradhan visited the spot and collected samples of construction materials even as local thronged the site in huge numbers and protested against the caving in of the bridge.“We have collected samples including cement concrete, iron rod and other materials which will be sent for examination to ascertain the quality of works. A preliminary report will be submitted by evening,” Pradhan said.
Besides locals, Congress and BJP activists visited the site and alleged poor quality of construction, inferior quality of materials and lack of supervision by the RD Department engineers for the mishap. They demanded a high-level probe into the incident.Meanwhile, RD Department Secretary Bishnupada Sethi speaking to reporters in Bhubaneswar blamed flouting of the guidelines by the departmental engineers and said they were not present while construction was being carried out.
The contractor executing the work would be blacklisted and all his pending dues would not be paid. Besides, it would be ensured that he would not be allotted any new project. Notably, the nine-span high-level bridge was almost complete as eight slabs had already been laid. The accident took place when work on the last span was underway on Sunday. Seven people were injured in the incident but fortunately no lives were lost.