3 min readPatnaMay 5, 2026 04:44 AM IST
Hours after the collapse of the Vikramshila bridge, Bihar Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary Monday sought assistance from the BRO and the Army to rebuild it.
A span of the Ganga bridge — which connects South Bihar to the Kosi and Seemanchal regions — collapsed, forcing traffic to be diverted to the Munger–Khagaria bridge over the Ganga.
Nawal Kishore Choudhary, District Magistrate, Bhagalpur, said the collapse occurred in two stages — initial structural failures at bridge number 133 around 11.55 pm, followed by a total span collapse at 1.07 am that split the 4.7-km bridge into two.
“No untoward incident was reported as an alert had been sounded. We have diverted Bhagalpur traffic towards Munger while traffic on the other side has been diverted towards Khagaria,” he said. Two engineers from the Road Construction Department have been suspended for “ignoring red flags”, and a probe has been ordered.
Opened under the Rabri Devi government in 2001, the 4.7-km bridge falls under the National Highways wing of the Bihar Road Construction Department and the Bihar Rajya Pul Nirman Nigam Limited. With repairs likely to take a few months, and a parallel four-lane bridge under construction expected to be operational only later this year, buses and freight trucks will have to take a longer route to Jharkhand via North Bihar, Kosi and Seemanchal.
Choudhary spoke to Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, seeking permission for the BRO and the Army to take up reconstruction. Meanwhile, Chandrashekhar Singh, chairman of the Bihar Rajya Pul Nirman Nigam Ltd, said the damaged portion would be repaired within three months.
“It could have been a major incident as there is a huge traffic rush on the bridge but for alertness of Bhagalpur district administration. A span of the bridge has been damaged and caved in the river but the pillar is completely safe,” he said.
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He admitted that concerns about the bridge’s safety had been flagged earlier.
“We had received information around a month ago about some minor problem (cropping up in the bridge). A team from RCD and Pul Nirman Nigam was sent to study and give its recommendations. We also sought advice from IIT Patna, and it was found that both the pillars and the bridge are intact, although a false wall had been damaged,” Singh said.
