Bhagalpur: Amid panic and widespread rumours about alleged damage to the Vikramshila Setu over the river Ganga, chief engineer of NHAI (south) Sanjay Bharati on Saturday clarified that the bridge structure and its pillars are completely safe and that the concern was triggered after a temporary construction ring around a pillar collapsed due to rusting.Bharati, who inspected the bridge along with a team of engineers from the bridge construction department and district officials, including the SDO (Sadar) and city DSP, said the viral video circulating on social media had created unnecessary panic.Referring to the claims about damage around two pillars, the chief engineer said the redundant (temporary and false) “jacket ring” around the pillars that were erected during the construction of the main pillars and bridge structures had been damaged, while the bridge itself remains fully functional with no damage to its structural components.Talking to this newspaper on Saturday, Bharati said, “The claims based on viral video in social media were totally misleading and deceptive as there is no truth in the damage to the main structures of the bridge or any of the pillars of the bridge. The Vikramshila Setu is thoroughly safe and normal plying of vehicular traffic is going on and hence there should be not be any panic,” he said.Explaining the issue, Bharati said temporary jacket rings are installed around pillars during bridge construction to prevent river debris from accumulating around the pillars and to regulate the flow of water entering the construction site.He said, as a normal practice, these rings are removed after the completion of the main structural pillars and other bridge components once the bridge becomes operational.“The Vikramshila bridge had become fully functional in the year 2001,” he said, adding that the temporary rings should normally have been removed later but were left in place in this case.“One of the false jacket rings around the main structural pillar was major damaged and another jacket ring got partially damaged due to rusting of the iron ring bands but it has nothing to do with any of the main structural pillars or the top reinforced cement concrete (RCC) slabs,” he said.District magistrate Nawal Kishor Choudhary said an experts’ team had been constituted to examine the situation. Engineers from the Bihar Rajya Pul Nirman Nigam Limited (BRPNNL), NHAI authorities and district officials inspected the site after the temporary structure collapsed into the river.“The engineering experts team has categorically stated that there is no damage to the main structural pillars or the main structures of the Vikramshila Bridge and hence there should not be any panic,” the DM said.Senior project engineer Gyan Chandra Das of BRPNNL at Bhagalpur said the damaged temporary wall would be broken and removed soon, adding that it was not part of the bridge structure.SDO (sadar) Vikas Kumar and city DSP Ajay Kumar Choudhary said they had been monitoring the situation since Friday and urged people not to spread unverified information on social media, saying officials were continuously reviewing the situation with technical experts.
