Sylhet Bureau :
A under construction bridge on the Kondanala canal on the Sunamganj-Jagannathpur road has collapsed even before its inauguration.
The bridge caved in when a hydraulic jack malfunctioned while girders were being installed on Sunday night, according to the Roads and Highways Department (RHD).
It is said that five girders of the bridge had been broken. Construction work of the bridge has been going on for about two years now, with the contractor, MM Builders, given responsibility for building the bridge.
The estimated cost of the bridge is about Tk70 lakh. However, locals complained that the bridge collapsed due to the use of substandard raw materials.
Local resident Gafur Mia said people believed the bridge had collapsed due to the use of low quality materials. He also complained that the construction work of the bridge had been progressing in a sluggish manner. According to sources, the RHD started the construction of three bridges on the Sunamganj-Jagannathpur road with a budgetary allocation of Tk100 crore in fiscal year 2019-20. One of those bridges has now collapsed before construction has been completed.
