Assam: Five arrested, 3 policemen taken off duty in Cachar bridge collapse incident

Assam Police has arrested five people, while three policemen have been taken off duty pending investigation, in connection with the collapse of a newly repaired bridge over the Harang River in Cachar district, connecting the states of Tripura, Mizoram, and Manipur, officials said on Thursday.

The bridge on the Silchar-Kalain Road caved-in on Wednesday with two overloaded trucks plunging into the river and injuring the drivers.

Cachar Senior Superintendent of Police Numal Mahatta said a case has already been registered in this connection and out of the five arrested, three are employees of a central weighbridge, an Assam government-approved facility, while two are staffers of a Haryana-based construction firm, Bharat Electronics Weighbridge.

Disciplinary action has also been initiated against three police personnel, including an assistant sub-inspector, and they have been ”closed to reserve” for proper investigation into the incident, he said.

According to preliminary evidence, it appears that the bridge collapsed when one of the trucks, while trying to overtake the other, hit a portion of the bridge, Mahatta added.

”We are investigating the matter, and action has been taken against three police personnel for allowing the trucks through the checkpoint,” Mahatta said.

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There was no casualty reported, but road communication has been disrupted between the three districts of Barak Valley- Cachar, Hailakandi and Sribhumi and the neighbouring states of Tripura, Mizoram and Manipur.

Boat services are being operated to facilitate movement of people and two alternate routes have been opened for light vehicles.

Cachar District Commissioner Mridul Yadav said it is not true that Barak Valley has been cut off from the rest of the country as alternate routes for the movement of light vehicles have been arranged.

Yadav also said a new bridge will be built soon over Harang River using pre-fabricated materials sourced from Patna.

“It is a ready-to-install Bailey bridge. The materials were likely to reach in the next five days while installation will take another 10 days and normal traffic was expected to resume within a fortnight”, he added.

Meanwhile, local residents have blamed poor-quality repair work for the collapse. The decades-old bridge had been reopened just last month after nearly two years of restoration.

“The weight limit of the bridge was 40 tonnes, but these trucks were carrying around 120 tonnes of stones,” zilla parishad member Farida Parvin Laskar alleged.

The vehicles crossed three checkpoints, one of which is barely 50 metres from the bridge, she added.