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Jammu Bridge Collapse Kills Three Workers, Prompts Engineer Suspensions and Probe

The collapse during repair work prompted a formal probe into safety lapses at a flood-damaged span.

Overview

  • The bridge section that collapsed near Thathar on Friday left three labourers dead and one man rescued alive after an overnight search.
  • Teams from the Army, J&K Police, NDRF and SDRF worked through the night with excavators, and a divisional fire officer was hurt by a falling boulder during the operation.
  • Deputy Chief Minister Surinder Kumar Choudhary suspended an assistant executive engineer and a junior engineer, attached the executive engineer, and ordered a three‑member inquiry led by Purshotam Kumar to examine safety, materials and oversight.
  • Officials identified the dead as Panchu Sethi from Odisha and Harish Kumar and Raj Kumar from Chhattisgarh, while survivor Tarsem Lal, a mason from Kanachak, is hospitalised in stable condition.
  • Families questioned why traffic was allowed on the old span during retaining‑wall work, and a local leader said excavation combined with vehicle vibrations may have contributed, with the inquiry set to test those claims on a bridge weakened by 2025 flash floods.