UP: Portion Of British-Era Bridge Connecting Kanpur To Unnao Collapses, Visuals Surface

The bridge is said to have collapsed at around 2 AM on Tuesday. No untoward incident was reported due to the collapse.

The bridge connecting Kanpur to Unnao was built in the British-era over the Ganga river in Uttar Pradesh.

Source : ANI

A portion of a historic bridge built in the British era on the Ganga river in Uttar Pradesh, collapsed and fell into the river in the early hours of Tuesday, November 26. The bridge connected Kanpur to Unnao.

The bridge is said to have collapsed at around 2 AM. It had been closed for almost four years now after damage was reported. No untoward incident was reported due to the collapse, locals told news agency PTI.

#WATCH | Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh | The Ganga Bridge which connects Kanpur to Unnao, built by the British, collapsed this morning.

The bridge corporation has closed this approximately 125-year-old bridge for a long time as it had been damaged already and agreed with the government… pic.twitter.com/HHW7Y7YEUk

— ANI UP/Uttarakhand (@ANINewsUP) November 26, 2024

According to locals, the bridge near the Ganga ghat was built by the Avadh and Rohilkhand Railway Limited Company in 1874 in Unnao district's Shuklaganj area.

A local named Ashu Awasthi told PTI: "A portion between two pillars of the bridge fell into the Ganga after 2 am. No one was hurt as the bridge was closed for traffic."

Another local, Panda Raju, stated that the bridge was closed in 2021 after cracks appeared on it. "At that time, it was known through the media that deep cracks were found in rooms 2, 10, 17 and 22 from the Kanpur side, due to which the administration completely closed the bridge on April 5, 2021," he added.

According to news agency ANI, the bridge corporation has closed this approximately 125-year-old bridge as it had been damaged already. It has agreed with the government to demolish it.

After the collapse of the bridge in the Ganga, several locals arrived at the spot and made videos of the collapsed structure. These photographs and videos of the structure later surfaced on social media. 

No government body has issued an immediate statement from over the matter, however, Krishna Kumar, who lives along the riverbank, told PTI that a few officers visited the site in the morning and went near the part where the bridge broke at. He claimed that the officers had arrived in a Lucknow-registered vehicle. 

"They went near the broken part and left after some time," Kumar said.