One person was killed and four others were injured when a Bailey bridge, which was being built over the Asi Ganga river to provide connectivity to seven villages of Bhatwari tehsil of Uttarakashi district, collapsed on Saturday morning.
The bridge was being built by the NBCC. They had executed around 90 percent work by spending `3 crore. The accident has reinforced the Opposition allegation that the NBCC has been blacklisted by the Union Government but the State Government has authorised them to build the bridge. Chief Minister Harish Rawat has expressed grief over the death and asked Uttarakashi DM to provide medical relief to the injured.
Talking to The Pioneer, leader of the Opposition Ajay Bhatt said that this is only a tip of the iceberg and more such collapses would happen in the future because the company is a blacklisted one. Now the question is why the State Government is patronising the companyIJ
It would be pertinent to mention here that the NBCC was authorised to build 14 bridges including six motor road bridges, at a cost of `7 crore on March 7, 2013 by the Vijay Bahuguna-led Congress regime.
The bridge was about to be completed as only 10 per cent work was yet to be executed by the company. Interestingly, the company has been authorised to build Vidhan Sabha and MlA hostel building at Gairsain as well.