On Monday, a girder of an overbridge that is still being built on the Mumbai Nagpur Samruddhi Corridor collapsed close to the village of Belgaon Tarhale in Igatpuri, according to officials on Tuesday.
The work has been ceased, the causes are under inquiry, and the area around the crash site has been roped off, according to a Ghoti Police Station officer who declined to be named. There have been no casualties in the event.
The event took place at 7.30 pm as work was being done on the building, according to a representative of the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation.
The bridge is expected to link Gangadwadi and Belgaon-Tarhale in the Igatpuri taluka.
On the 701-km-long Hindu HridaySamrat Balasaheb Thackeray Maharashtra Samruddhi Mahamarg Phase I, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi opened on December 11, 2022, the bridge represents a link in among the most challenging terrains.
The remaining 181 km of the Nashik-Mumbai portion are being worked on quickly, and the bridge disaster is likely to delay the start of the Rs 55,000 crore mega-project competitive phase.
The bridge disaster has sparked concerns about construction quality, procedures, and materials, as well as competent site management, particularly in light of the HHSBTMSM’s plan to cut the current 16-hour travel time between Mumbai and Nagpur to just 8 hours.
The Samruddhi Motorway has, however, already acquired the moniker of a “killer highway” due to more than 95 fatalities and 300 accidents that have occurred on its currently operational Nagpur-Nashik section.
In a letter to Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis, and others, Council for Protection of Rights (CPR) Chairman lawyer Vinod Tiwari drew attention to the utter lack of ‘halts’ or other essential amenities and services that are causing accidents on the motorway.