Sylhet Bridge Collapse
No move yet to salvage fallen vehicles
The vehicles, which fell into Barobhanga canal after Friday's bridge collapse on Companyganj-Sylhet road, are yet to be salvaged. The photo was taken yesterday.Photo: STAR
There has been no move to salvage the fallen vehicles from Barobhanga canal since the suspension of rescue drive in the early hours of Saturday following Friday's bridge collapse. During a visit to the site, this correspondent found some of the vehicles clearly visible in the 8-9 feet deep canal, while people were using boats to travel to the other side. On Friday night, the bailey bridge on Campanyganj-Sylhet road collapsed with six stone-laden trucks, a microbus and a CNG-run auto-rickshaw, killing one person and injuring 12 others. The rescue operation was concluded around 12:40am on Saturday after fire service divers found "no body left" in the fallen vehicles. Abdul Hannan, chairman of Ronikhai Union Parishad, however, said one of the truckers named Monir Uddin had still been missing. The Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) of Companyganj, Md Saiful Islam, confirmed the claim. Asked about salvaging of the vehicles, the UNO said the Truck Owners Association was making the delay for unknown reasons. They may start the operation today, he said. Meanwhile, some materials for reconstruction of the bridge reached the site yesterday. AQM Ikram Ullah, additional chief engineer, Roads & Highways, Sylhet region, said the construction work would begin today. It would take a maximum of one week for erection of the bridge, which costs about Tk 20 lakh, he added. He blamed overloading of trucks for the collapse of the 100-foot long and 24-wide bridge. Each 10-wheel truck used to carry 50 tonnes of stones while the limit of load was 10 tonnes, he said. Every day about 3,000 trucks ply the road to transport stones from three big quarries of Uthma, Sharpin Tila and Bholaganj.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel.
Comments