Telangana Bridge, Under Construction For 8 Years, Gone With The Wind

A portion of an under-construction bridge in Telangana's Peddapalli district collapsed on Monday night. Two concrete girders, out of five between two pillars about 100 feet apart, collapsed around 9.45 pm after a strong wind blew in the area. Locals apprehend the other three may give way soon too.

"Luckily, a marriage party of 65 people on a bus passed by just one minute earlier and escaped being crushed by the concrete," Sirikonda Bakka Rao, who was sarpanch of Odedu village - 600 metres away, till his term lapsed two months ago, told NDTV.

The nearly one-kilometre bridge across the Manair river was inaugurated by the then Telangana assembly Speaker S Madhusudhana Chary and local MLA Putta Madhu in 2016 and nearly Rs 49 crore was sanctioned for it.

The work was meant to be completed in a year and was meant to reduce the distance between three towns - Manthani, Parakal and Jammikunta - by about 50 km. The bridge was to connect Garmillapallu in Tekumatla mandal in Bhupalpalli to Odededu in Peddapalli.

The contractor had reportedly stopped the work within a year or two as he was under pressure for commissions and the government was not paying out his dues, locals said.

The same contractor had built a bridge in Vemulawada that was washed away during heavy rain in 2021, Mr Rao said.

The villagers had been using the same route, laying a mud road under the bridge, for the last five years.

"The cost of the project was escalated and last year another Rs 11 crore was added to the estimatd cost without even 60 per cent of the work being completed," said Sandeep Rao, a local.