Cassian Baliarsingh

In a major embarrassment for Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, an under-construction four-lane bridge over the Ganga river in Bhagalpur came crashing down like a house of cards, for the second time in a year.

Interestingly, this was the dream project of Bihar CM Nitish Kumar. The video of the bridge collapse has raised serious questions on the rampant corruption going on during Nitish Kumar government. Bihar BJP president Samrat Choudhary alleged that corruption is rampant in the Nitish Kumar-led Bihar government.

Lambasting at Nitish Kumar, BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonwala tweeted, “Aguwani-Sultanganj bridge in Bihar’s Bhagalpur - dream project of CM Nitish Kumar collapses. This is the second time the bridge has collapsed. Imagine the level of corruption! ₹1750 crores of taxpayer money takes Jal Samadhi with the bridge.”

Netizens on Twitter also brutally criticized Nitish Kumar and called it the ‘bridge of corruption’ as this isn’t the first time that such a thing happened in Bihar.

In such a scenario, let’s take a look at other major cases of corruption and bizarre burglaries that happened in Bihar.


1.    Bridge Collapse: In December last, a bridge snapped into two and fell into the Burhi Gandak River in Bihar’s Begusarai district just a few days before its inauguration. The 206-metre-long bridge was constructed at a whopping cost of over Rs 13 crore. Interestingly, the bridge was constructed under Chief Minister NABARD scheme.


2.    Miscreants steal 2km road: In Kharouni village of Rajoun block in Banka district of Bihar, villagers woke up one morning to find the whole 2km road missing. Thieves had stolen an entire road and had instead sown crops there. Villagers had been using the route that connected two villages for years.


3.    Mobile tower theft: Thieves made off with an entire mobile tower in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur district. The thieves had removed all the equipment worth Rs 4.5 lakh, loaded it onto a pick-up van and taken it away. Along with the mobile tower, they also fled away with a generator set, shelter, and stabliser.


4.    60-feet-long iron bridge loot: This might sound unbelievable but is true. A gang of thieves managed to steal a 60-feet long iron bridge in broad daylight. The thieves posing as officers of the state Irrigation Department looted the bridge in broad daylight. By the time, administration could understand about the theft, the thieves had fled with the bridge.


5.    Train engine/railway track theft: Unidentified thieves stole around two kilometers of railway track in the Samastipur district of Bihar. The thieves took the track and sold it to scrap dealers. This was probably the first time that 2km of railway track was stolen. Similarly, a gang allegedly stole an entire diesel train engine that had been transported to Barauni for repair work.

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