The bridge was apparently shut last year for some repair work.
A part of a bridge connecting two towns over the Ganga river collapsed due to the strong flow of water caused by heavy rain in Uttar Pradesh's Meerut district today. The bridge collapse has brought the traffic in several nearby villages to a standstill.
The approach road of the bridge connecting Meerut's Hastinapur and Bijnor was washed away in the river at 4 am this morning after it could not withstand the strong flow of the river.
The bridge was apparently shut last year for some repair and some security installations are pending.
"The bridge connecting Hastinapur and Bijnor was shut the last year also due to repair work and the security installations are pending, Deepak Meena, District Magistrate of Meerut told news agency ANI .
"There was a bridge connecting Hastinapur and Bijnor which was shut last year also due to repair work. PWD had sent a revised estimate which was above the initial estimate. The security installations are pending. An enquiry is going on to investigate the delay in the project. The revised estimate has not been approved yet as a result the security provisions could not be built and consequently, the approach road has again eroded. We have requested for release of the pending amount so that protection work on the approach road can be constructed," Deepak Meena was quoted by news agency ANI.
Some locals told news agency ANI that last year also, the connecting road was destroyed in the month of July and wasn't repaired for six months. They also told that the work of the connecting road was finished just two days before the monsoon hit the area on Saturday.
"PWD department and administrative officials were also informed about the matter, but no one took any action. The result was that on Monday morning, a part of the link road was washed away in the Ganges, due to which the traffic here was completely obstructed, and due to the increase in the water level of the Ganga, the erosion has taken a severe form, and gradually this link road is getting immersed in the Ganges. A long queue of heavy vehicles is on the bridge and the traffic has completely stopped," they added.