Assam: British-era bridge collapses in Karimganj, 5 construction workers injured

A 100-year-old bridge, built during the British era, collapsed in Assam’s Karimganj district on Wednesday, causing severe injuries to five construction workers, one of them being critical.

The iron bridge is located in Chargola area on National Highway-6. The Karimganj district administration said that an RCC bridge was constructed near the old bridge and they were attempting to reconstruct the old one when the incident took place.

“The labourers were deconstructing the old bridge when it collapsed. Some of them are severely injured and have been taken to the Karimganj civil hospital,” the district official said.

Karimganj’s additional SP Partha Protim Das said there have been no casualties in the incident.

The injured persons have been identified as Khairul Islam, Rubel Hussain Barbhuiyan, Akhtar Hussain Barbhuiyan, Subodh Das and Chandan Debnath, all aged between 22 and 28 years. They are all residents of Karimganj district, the police said.

Eyewitnesses said the bridge collapsed around 5:30 pm on Wednesday, and while some workers managed to escape, the others fell into the Kachua river.

Locals blamed the authorities for allegedly not using modern technology to deconstruct the old bridge, because of which the labourers had to manually destroy it.

HT attempted to reach out to Karimganj deputy commissioner Mridul Yadav for more details, but he didn’t respond.