Bhopal, February 23 A portion of the Jabalpur-Bhopal road leading to a rail-overbridge (ROB) on a national highway collapsed during maintenance work in Jabalpur district, disrupting traffic on the route, an official said on Monday.
No casualties were reported in the incident, which occurred on Sunday night. Traffic has been diverted through alternate roads on the highway, he added.
The ROB is located on National Highway-45, and the portion of the Jabalpur-Bhopal approach road collapsed during maintenance, Rakesh More, divisional manager of the Madhya Pradesh Road Development Corporation (MPRDC), told
Traffic on the road was completely stopped and diverted to alternate routes. The repair and restoration work was being carried out under the guidance of an expert team, he said.
The length of this section of NH-45 is 56 km, and it was constructed for Rs 400 crore a few years back, he said.
State PWD Minister Rakesh Singh said that a portion of the ROB, which was built by MPRDC, collapsed in Jabalpur.
The construction agency was carrying out repair work on one section, but a portion collapsed during the process, the minister told reporters in Bhopal.
The contractor has been blacklisted. An FIR will also be lodged against the contractor, he said.
The ROB was constructed three years ago. This should not have happened, Singh said.
Strict action will also be taken against the officer under whose supervision it was built, he added.
However, senior Congress leader and former chief minister Kamal Nath targeted the state BJP government over the incident.
In a post on X, he said the Rs 400 crore overbridge on Bhopal-Jabalpur National Highway 45 collapsed within just three years.
"This incident is not just a construction failure, but also exposes the deep gap between government claims and ground reality. The bridge, once hailed as a symbol of development, has now been reduced to rubble, raising serious questions," he said.
Nath said that according to reports, about 200 metres of the bridge collapsed. The lane where repair work had been underway for the past six months collapsed. This clearly indicates a structural flaw, he claimed.
Despite this, traffic continued to flow. This situation points to administrative negligence, he charged.
This national highway connects two major cities, Bhopal and Jabalpur. Its disruption will have a significant impact on traffic, trade, and public life, Nath claimed.
State Congress president Jitu Patwari said that a part of the Bhopal-Jabalpur NH 45 has collapsed for the second time.
The BJP has now become synonymous with corruption, he alleged in a statement.
"The hard-earned money of the common people is being sacrificed to the BJP's corruption," he claimed.