look news india
Araria 16 July (HS). Due to continuous rain and water release in the water catchment area of Nepal, the Parman river is in spate. The two span culvert built on Lakshminia Dhar in ward number-13 of Amahara Panchayat of Forbesganj block collapsed. This culvert used to connect Gopalpur of Majhua Panchayat to the eastern area including Amahara. Thousands of people pass through this road every day.
This culvert was constructed in 2017 by the Rural Works Development Department under the road and bridge construction work. Due to the washing away of the culvert, the traffic of dozens of villages in the eastern areas of Forbesganj has been affected. Now people will have to travel long distances to come and go. Due to the washing away of the culvert, Majhua village has lost connectivity with fifteen to twenty villages. Angry villagers, angered by the washing away of the culvert, demonstrated and raised slogans against the public representatives on the spot.
Executive Engineer of Rural Works Development Department Praveen Kumar said that this culvert was old. A board stating that the bridge is damaged was put up by the department at the damaged site. The check list of the bridge has also been sent to the headquarters. A new culvert will be constructed after getting permission from the department.
According to the district administration, this culvert is twenty years old. After its construction in 2017, its temporary renovation was done by RW between 2020-2022.
Manoj Vishwas, the PACS president of Majhua Panchayat and the principal general secretary of RJD, said that this culvert was built about seven years ago. At the time of the construction of the bridge, a complaint was lodged against the contractor in the department for poor quality work but no result was obtained. The construction work was of very poor quality. If this road is not built by the department within ten days, we will stage a sit-in protest.
The angry villagers say that the Rural Development Department does not pay much attention to the quality of construction work done in rural areas. As a result, roads and bridges collapse like this every day. The condition of all the three bridges built on the road is similarly bad and pathetic.