A bridge on the Kali River, connecting Goa to Karnataka, collapsed in the wee hours of Wednesday, stalling traffic on Highway number 66, the official said. During the time of collapse, a truck was crossing the bridge which fell into the Kali River. However, the driver was rescued by the local fishermen, who dived into the river at the right time, a police official from Karwar in neighbouring Karnataka said.
The police official said that an old bridge on the Kali River at Sadashivgad in Karnataka collapsed at around 1 am. The official said that after the new bridge was constructed a decade back, this bridge was used by the commuters bound for Goa. Following the incident, the traffic was stopped on the new bridge for some time in the wee hours of Wednesday.
Later, all vehicles, except heavy ones, were allowed to pass through, the Karwar police said. Goa's Canacona police station in-charge Harish Raut Desai said that the traffic movement on the new bridge was restricted as the Karnataka authorities were checking its stability after the old bridge collapsed, Furthermore, he added that the Goa police were coordinating with their counterparts in Karwar to monitor the situation on the highway.
Bridge collapse in Maharashtra
Earlier on August 1, a bridge collapsed in Maharashtra's Gondia. The bridge on the Navegaon-Kohalgaon-Keshori Road caved in the night of August 1, in which nobody was injured, the officials had said. According to him, a passerby informed the authorities about the cave-in, after which a team of officials visited the spot and the traffic was diverted via Khairi-Sukdi village.
The exact cause behind the incident was not known however, the bridge was around five decades old and it had become weak as it was constructed as per the old method. Also, the region witnessed heavy rains in the fortnight back then.
(With PTI Inputs)
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