Hyderabad:

A portion of an under-construction bridge in Telangana’s Peddapalli district collapsed on Monday evening. Two concrete girders, out of 5 between two pillars about 100 ft aside, collapsed round 9.45 pm after a robust wind blew within the space. Locals apprehend the opposite three might give means quickly too.

“Fortunately, a wedding celebration of 65 folks on a bus handed by only one minute earlier and escaped being crushed by the concrete,” Sirikonda Bakka Rao, who was sarpanch of Odedu village – 600 metres away, until his time period lapsed two months in the past, advised NDTV.

The almost one-kilometre bridge throughout the Manair river was inaugurated by the then Telangana meeting Speaker S Madhusudhana Chary and native MLA Putta Madhu in 2016 and almost Rs 49 crore was sanctioned for it.

The work was meant to be accomplished in a yr and was meant to scale back the gap between three cities – Manthani, Parakal and Jammikunta – by about 50 km. The bridge was to attach Garmillapallu in Tekumatla mandal in Bhupalpalli to Odededu in Peddapalli.

The contractor had reportedly stopped the work inside a yr or two as he was below strain for commissions and the federal government was not paying out his dues, locals mentioned.

The identical contractor had constructed a bridge in Vemulawada that was washed away throughout heavy rain in 2021, Mr Rao mentioned.

The villagers had been utilizing the identical route, laying a mud highway below the bridge, for the final 5 years.

“The price of the challenge was escalated and final yr one other Rs 11 crore was added to the estimatd price with out even 60 per cent of the work being accomplished,” mentioned Sandeep Rao, a neighborhood.