Agartala, 10th April 2026: A major portion of an under-construction bridge over the Manu river connecting Telia village in Fatikroy constituency with Sonai Muri collapsed on Friday, prompting sharp criticism from opposition parties. A CPI(M) delegation visited the site and condemned the incident, alleging corruption and poor quality of work under the current government.
The 140-metre-long RCC bridge, a ₹6 crore project undertaken by a Kolkata-based private construction firm, began in 2021. During the casting of a 35-metre span, the temporary staging structure gave way, reportedly due to rising river levels from early rains that weakened soil load-bearing capacity. Officials, however, denied the use of substandard materials and said the contractor would rebuild the damaged section at its own expense.
CPI(M) leaders, including state committee member Swapan Kumar Vaishnav, former MLA Samiran Malakar, and local leaders Subrata Das, Prosanjit Sinha, Jaydeb Pal, and Apurba Rudrapal, accused the government of awarding contracts to outside firms for profit-sharing with ministers and contractors. They claimed the project was originally inaugurated in 2017 under Left rule by then PWD minister Badal Choudhury, but was retendered after the change of government.
The opposition announced plans to submit a mass deputation to the Kumarghat PWD office in the coming days, demanding accountability. The collapse has reignited debate over transparency and quality in Tripura’s infrastructure projects, with the CPI(M) branding it a failure of the “double-engine government’s promise of clean development.”
