Under construction Telangana bridge collapses as high wind gushes through the area

Locals apprehend the other three may give way soon too.

"Luckily, a marriage party of 65 people on a bus passed by just one minute earlier and escaped being crushed by the concrete," Sirikonda Bakka Rao, who was sarpanch of Odedu village - 600 metres away, till his term lapsed two months ago, told NDTV.

The nearly one-kilometre bridge across the Manair river was inaugurated by the then Telangana assembly Speaker S Madhusudhana Chary and local MLA Putta Madhu in 2016 and a sum of Rs. 49 crore was sanctioned for the construction of the same.

The work was meant to be completed in a year.

The bridge was being constructed to reduce the distance between three towns - Manthani, Parakal, and Jammikunta - by about 50 km.

The bridge was to connect Garmillapallu in Tekumatla mandal in Bhupalpalli to Odededu in Peddapalli.

The contractor had reportedly stopped the work within a year or two as he was under pressure for commissions and the government was not paying out his dues, locals said.

The same contractor had built a bridge in Vemulawada that was washed away during heavy rain in 2021, the village sarpanch said.

The villagers had been using the same route, laying a mud road under the bridge, for the last five years.