Sikkim bridge collapses: Rangchang bridge contractor arrested

Gangtok, TT,Dec. 20: The contractor who had constructed the Rangchang bridge that collapsed with a trailer yesterday has been arrested.

The arrest of Mohan Bajaj, a resident of Gangtok, has shifted focus to the quality of work from the initial theory that overweight might have caused the bridge collapse.

The police picked up Bajaj last night. He was remanded in five days’ police custody by a court here today.

Eight persons, two of them pedestrians, died when the two-year-old bridge along the Singtam-Dickhu-Mangan road in East Sikkim crashed 70ft below into a stream. The Sikkim government has ordered a probe into the incident.

“Singtam police have registered a case against the contractor under Section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and Section 120 B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC,” deputy inspector-general (range) N. Sridhar Rao told journalists.

“Investigation is on to find out what exactly caused the collapse. We are also looking into the charge that overweight caused the collapse. Presently, we are working to pull the remaining bodies out of the debris.”

While three bodies were extricated from the pile of mangled metal and concrete yesterday, two were taken out today. Efforts are still on to retrieve the other three bodies.

The arrest of the contractor has cast a cloud on the initial theory that the bridge had collapsed because of overload.

“It is not possible to arrive at a conclusion on the bridge collapse without consulting experts. From a lay man’s perspective, it looks that the design (of the bridge) has failed. The machine (trailer) is being presently blamed but it had crossed so many bridges to reach here. There is some suspicion regarding the quality of works,” said Ugen T. Gyatso Bhutia, the chief whip of the ruling Sikkim Democratic Front. Rangchang falls under his Tumin-Lingee Assembly constituency.

BRO workers repair the old steel bridge at Rangchang on Tuesday for light traffic. Picture by Prabin Khaling

The Border Roads Organisation, which maintains the strategic Singtam-Dikchu-Mangan link, had hinted yesterday that the bridge had crashed because of overweight. The 85 metre-long and 8.5 metre-wide bridge was made to withstand weight up to 70 tonnes. But there were claims that the 58-wheel truck and the cargo — equipment for a hydel project — together weighed 100 tonnes.

Bhutia said chief minister Pawan Chamling had constituted a commission to inquire into the bridge collapse. “Only then will the truth come out,” he added.

The BRO that had taken a lot of flak from the Sikkim government last year for its “shoddy” road widening works in different parts of the state, is also conducting its own probe.

“It is difficult to say whether the bridge collapsed because of the overloaded trailer. We have to rummage through the debris to find out the nature of the load. Then, we will be able to say something concrete. We will conduct a departmental inquiry and the guilty will be dealt with strongly,” said P.K.H. Singh, commandant of 764 Border Roads Task Force (BRTF) which takes care of the Singtam-Dikchu-Mangan route.

The BRTF is a wing of the BRO to construct roads and bridges in border areas. Sometimes, the BRO contracts out the work to individuals as in the case of the construction of the Rangchang bridge.

Singh said the BRO was only a construction wing of the army and could not check if the vehicles passing through its bridges crossed the maximum limit of permissible weight. “We put notices at every bridge about the maximum load it can bear and all drivers know this,” he said.

The officer said all the six-seven bridges along the stretch passed a scrutiny of the BRO after the earthquake of September 18. “We had checked all the bridges after the earthquake and found that they were safe,” he said.

The BRTF commandant said the old steel bridge located close to the collapsed structure was being repaired so that light vehicles could move from tomorrow. The steel bridge, almost two decade old, had not been dismantled when the new bridge was installed.