A car fell from the bridge on the border between Bareilly and Badayun and three young people died
Three people died in an accident on the Bareilly-Badaun border in Uttar Pradesh. A car had fallen off the under-construction Ramganga bridge. When passers-by noticed the crashed car near Khallapur village on Sunday morning, they saw three dead bodies and informed the police. It is suspected that due to incorrect GPS location, the driver did not notice the end of the incomplete bridge and the car fell. An FIR has been registered against 4 engineers and an unknown person, including the regional director of Google Map, in connection with this accident.
Badaun DM Nidhi Srivastava had directed Naib Tehsildar to take strict action against the officials responsible for the accident. Following this, Naib Tehsildar Chhavi Ram of Dataganj Tehsil filed an FIR against 4 engineers and unknown persons including the regional manager of Google Map. An FIR has been registered against assistant engineers Mohammad Arif and Abhishek Kumar, junior engineers Ajay Gangwar and Maharaj Singh along with an unknown person. The police have registered a case under section 105 of the BNS.
Car fell 25 feet from Ramganga Bridge
The car fell approximately 25 feet from the Ramganga Bridge, killing three people in the car. The three were friends and were going from Gurugram to Faridpur in Bareilly via Badaun to attend a wedding. In 2023, State Bridge Corporation had constructed a bridge over Ramganga river to connect Faridpur of Bareilly with Dataganj tehsil of Badaun. Traffic on it also started, but the access road to Badaun was washed away by the flood of 2023, since then traffic on this route was closed.
The Badaun Public Works Department was responsible for this access road and two assistant engineers, Mohammad Arif, Abhishek Kumar and two junior engineers, Ajay Gangwar and Maharaj Singh, were sent to take care of the roads in this area. It was the responsibility of these four officers to stop traffic by erecting a wall or barricade if the access road was closed.
Angry DM, why didn’t PWD see the access road?
The bridge over the Ramganga River was being constructed by the State Bridge Corporation, but the maintenance of the approach road leading to the bridge was being carried out by the PWD and that is why the PWD is being held most responsible in the entire incident. DM Nidhi Srivastava has sent a letter to PWD officials, mentioning that the responsibility of installing the wall and signboard fell on Badaun PWD and PWD has shown great negligence. The letter writes that said accident occurred due to failure to install signaling even though the access road was disconnected.
Executive Engineer Was Seen Avoiding Questions
Although the bridge was constructed by the State Bridge Corporation, the responsibility for maintenance of the approach bar lay with the PWD. The department also knew that the access road had been washed away by the 2023 flood and had sent the proposal to build it to the government, so why was no surveillance taken on that route? Why weren’t barriers put up on that route? Why didn’t PWD write to Google to remove that route from the map? When executive engineer Naresh Kumar was asked all these questions, he seemed to avoid them.
What did officials say about people with disabilities?
PWD executive engineer Naresh Kumar said signboards will be installed on the bridge following the directions of DM Nidhi Srivastava. Barricades will also be made. A letter has been written to the government regarding completion of the bridge construction work and dumping of earth around the approach road.
The construction of the bridge near Muda Pukhta village in Dataganj tehsil started in 2022 and was ready in 2023. Which was constructed at a cost of approximately Rs 100 crore and on which 24 pillars were manufactured. Three pillars were on the Badaun border, the remaining 21 pillars were in Faridpur area of Bareilly. With the opening of this road, the distance between Dataganj and Faridpur of Badaun was reduced significantly. All this construction was done during the BJP government. The demand of this time arose in the Samajwadi government and Akhilesh government had approved this project. During the 2023 rainy season, the access road to this bridge was cut and this route was closed indefinitely.
Google Map is also responsible
The accident on the bridge occurred because the drivers were driving with the help of a GPS. They didn’t know that Google Map was taking them the wrong way. This road has been closed for over a year after the 2023 rains, so why didn’t Google Map update the road? These are all questions that Google also has to answer.
Report- Khalid Riaz, Badaun
