Koilwar railway bridge pregnant with disastrous possibility

Koilwar bridge in the Bhojpur district of Bihar was built by the British in 1862, on river Sone growing weaker because of loss of strength of its foundation pillars due to unabated illegal sand mining in the vicinity of bridge.



The Railways have put this bridge on Sone, the only direct link between Patna and Delhi and the mainline's Howrah end, under the scanner and put a speed restriction on the movement of trains on the bridge.

In February 2002, the Mines Department had moved a file to the Chief Secretary pointing out that a Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) cabinet minister was engaged in illegal mining of sand near koilwar.

Secretary of the department had seized a truck loaded with Sone-sand collected from the sone river.

The surveyor of the state directorate of mines had pleaded that the truck belonged to a minister and, therefore, it should be allowed to pass through the check posts. The RJD minister had claimed that Khandiya Ghat sand mine belonged to him. The surveyor was suspended and case him was recommended.

The secretary had also written about the role of "powerful politicians involved in the illegal mining of sand" in the Sone river belt, which can create law and order problems.

This has led to huge loss of revenue in Bhojpur, Chapra and Patna districts due to illegal mining. The revenue collection target has not been met and there has been steep fall in revenue that is attributed to failure of the government to tender sand mining and pave way for legal mining.

State Mines and Minerals Development Corporation did not venture to participate in the bid for sand mining. The state Mines Ministry had referred the matter to the Finance Department. Ideally, District Magistrates should have invited the tender since DMs are empowered to call the tender under rules framed in 1972.

After bifurcation, sand is the only material left in the mining department through which it can hope to raise the collection but "powerful politicians" have been deemed a hurdle.

The illegal mining in Sone over here threatens the bridge and seems to be waiting for disaster.

Has the state of affairs changed under the Janata Dal United (JD)[U]led alliance government?

In the case of disaster, do we know who is responsible and who will be held accountable. Or after the disater once again, Ministry of Railways will anounce ex-gratia with setting matters right in consultation with the state government. For a change, this dereliction of duty would involve both RJD and JD(U).