Kathmandu, August 11
A slab bridge under construction over the Bishnumati River in Dhalko of Kathmandu collapsed on Thursday evening.
The constructions works were about to complete and the bill was set to be inaugurated next week.
It has been learned that the Department of Roads had spent Rs 150 million for the bridge.
The contractor, Him Sagarmatha Construction Company Pvt Ltd, has claimed that heavy load resulted in the collapse. It says the design was not faulty as it was approved by the Department of Roads.
However, locals say there was no load at the time of incident. They accuse the construction company of using substandard materials and negligence in the process.
The company’s engineer Rabin Shrestha informs Onlinekhabar, “We had already put 23 slabs on the bridge, but it collapsed while we were putting the final slab.”
Meanwhile, five persons sustained minor injuries in the accident, according to locals.
The construction work was underway since around one year ago.
