1 killed, 3 critically injured in under-construction bridge collapse in Odisha

One labourer waskilled and three others critically injured when an under-construction bridge collapsed in Odisha's Nabarangpur districton Sunday, police said.

Locals said that the under-construction bridge locatedat Talpadar in Umarkote block suddenly caved in when someworkers were levelling the upper surface of the structure inthe evening.

The labourers were buried under a heap of concrete andiron rods, they said.

The deceased was identified as Mahendra Mali. Thethree critically injured persons were admitted to the districthospital, a police officer said.

The bridge over Negi River was being built by aBhubaneswar-based contractor under the Biju Setu Scheme of theRural Development department.

The bridge was scheduled to have been built at a costof Rs 2.41 crore by March 2019 but the contractor missed thedeadline, an official said.

Meanwhile, Development Commissioner P K Jena, who isalso the in-charge of the Rural Development Department,directed the Nabarangpur collector to file criminal casesagainst the contractor and the officials inspecting the work.

He also asked the superintendent engineer based inSunabeda and the engineer-in-chief, who is on a tour, to visitthe site and take stock of the situation.