In poll-bound Bihar, SPS Construction India Pvt. Ltd. (formerly known as S P Singla Constructions) boasts “Building infrastructure for future”. For eleven years (and counting), the company has struggled to deliver the Agwani-Sultanganj bridge.
In the last three years, it has collapsed three times, 2022, 2023, 2024.
“It takes years to build only the portion that fell… I don’t think it will be ready even in the next 10-15 years,” Divakar Prasad Yadav, 55, said. “Material used in the construction lacks quality. There is widespread corruption, but everyone seems to have turned a blind eye.”
Bridge delays, corruption, and collapse
Without the bridge, he loses both time and money when he commutes 40 kilometres by Bus to reach Bhagalpur from Khagaria.
With each collapse, people’s right to connectivity and strong infrastructure collapses. But there is a salient destruction of the river’s ecology. The latter triggered a National Green Tribunal (NGT) lawsuit, which ordered the debris removal by December 2025.
The state ministries and locals allege that the reason why the bridge remains unfinished and repeatedly collapses is a story of corruption.
On their website, the SPS Construction touts mastery of “technically demanding” projects. They have experience with 27 river bridges across India, including seven in Bihar and a 2.2-km, four-lane high-level bridge over the Kosi River in Bhagalpur itself.
It has completed 13 cable-stayed or extradosed bridges nationwide, four in Bihar; 18 steel superstructure bridges, one in Bihar; and 14 balanced cantilever bridges.
At the moment, the company is handling four river bridges, one of which is the four-lane Ganges bridge in Bhagalpur, parallel to Vikramshila Setu. In addition, there are 11 cable-stayed or extradosed bridges, three in Bihar alone, including the thrice-collapsed Agwani-Sultanganj project.
In 2023, the company faced allegations reportedly for using low-grade materials during the construction. There’s also a question mark on the pilings done to construct the bridge, according to the report cited by IANS.
Broken promises and public struggle
In March 2025, Bihar’s Road Construction Department was transferred from Deputy CM Vijay Kumar Sinha to Nitin Nabin. Before the handover, Sinha barred SPS Construction from taking new projects until the Agwani-Sultanganj bridge is completed, citing missing files and irregularities
Sinha, who took charge of the department in January 2024, alleged that he had been demanding the project file for months, and there were deliberate delays and irregularities. “The file was missing for days; even Chief Minister Nitish Kumar ordered action,” he said.
Now Jal Shakti Minister, Sinha did not respond to comment requests, nor did his successor Nitin Nabin or Environment Minister Dr. Sunil Kumar.
An official at the SPS Construction said that “certain external factors,” like “unexpected river surges,” among others, were the reason behind the collapse. In a telephonic conversation, on the condition of anonymity, he said, “We’re cooperating fully. These are isolated incidents, not reflective of our standards.”
“We have to travel 40 kilometres to reach the other side. Had the bridge been there, it would have been a distance of merely 3 kilometres,” Kajal Devi said.“Hospitals are mostly across the river and therefore, in case of emergencies, we are the ones who suffer.”
Kajal Devi tends to her buffaloes along the banks of the Ganga in Bhagalpur district. She supports her family by selling milk and lives with her ill husband in a flood-vulnerable area.
The bridge project, costing over 1,700 crores, foundation stone was laid in Feb 2014. A four-lane giant spanning a little over three kilometres over the Ganga, it was meant to connect the districts of Bhagalpur and Khagaria.
The promises were simple: risk-free transportation, better access to schools, markets, and hospitals, and a boost to the economy of the adjacent districts.
In April 2022, the storm and currents reportedly toppled the superstructure between pillars four and six. No one was hurt, but the collapse sent shockwaves through the state. Investigations followed, and teams from the Bihar Road Construction Department came to assess the damage. It found that loose cable stand was the reason behind the collapse.
Repeated collapses and rising costs
A larger section of the bridge collapsed in June 2023 with a thunderous roar. Soon, an executive engineer was suspended, and a show-cause notice was issued to SPS Construction, threatening blacklisting. Bihar’s Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said it “won’t be tolerated.”
The Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee (IIT-R) conducted an expert probe after the 2023 collapse. The report exposed design flaws that meant the pillars could not support the load of the superstructure, along with substandard materials in the girders, and inadequate testing for seismic and hydraulic stresses. It recommended a full rebuild over repairs and pointed fingers at SPS Construction for poor execution and authorities for lax oversight.
The report has not been made public. Ground Report has filed an RTI to seek the full report. Once received, the story will be updated.
The third collapse happened in August 2024 when the portion between pillars nine and ten fell. Videos went viral.
Reconstruction resumed in June 2025, under a new tight 18-month deadline of December 2026. Though the company has missed several deadlines, previously.
“We have been waiting for years for this bridge to ease our commutes. Now, we’re back to risking our lives on overcrowded boats,” Suman Kumar, in his 30s, said. He is a farmer and fisherman from a village near Agwani Ghat.
“We free dolphins if they get stuck in fishing nets,” he said. “Once, two dolphins washed up on the shore… we helped them get back into the Ganga River. These dolphins can’t see properly, and a lot of cement slabs have been dumped into the Ganga after the bridge’s collapse, which must be causing problems for them.”
Following engineer Hemant Kumar’s petition, on August 2024, the National Green Tribunal issued notices to several Bihar government agencies for failing to clear debris from the collapsed bridge site.
The petition highlighted risks to Gangetic dolphins due to debris left in the river. Those served with notice included the Bihar pollution control board, Bhagalpur District Magistrate, National Mission for Clean Ganga, state forest and environment department, chief wildlife warden, and Union Ministry of Jal Shakti.
In the submission to the NGT, the petitioner noted, “The damage to the bridge has endangered the aquatic life of dolphins in the Ganga River. It is stated that a huge quantity of muck was dumped in the Ganga River due to the collapse, causing severe damage to the lives of dolphins in the river.”
Dolphins vanish as debris remains
On December 11, 2024, a report by an NGT committee assigned to assess any changes in the dolphin sanctuary’s ecology, noted that “no dolphins were sighted in an 8 to 9 km stretch downstream of the part of the bridge collapse site, which may be linked to the presence of debris remaining in the river… behaviour and movement patterns of dolphins may have been affected by the debris.”
The committee said long-term monitoring is necessary to assess any ecological impacts of the collapse.
On June 26, 2025, the Bihar State Pollution Control Board filed an Action Taken Report before the NGT regarding the removal of the debris, the deadline for which was April 2025, given by the NGT itself. It stated that while some debris had been removed, some remained even after the deadline.
In the final hearing, petitioner Hemant Kumar submitted that the debris has still not been removed.
Ground Report spoke to Bhagalpur District Magistrate Dr. Nawal Kishor Choudhary on the day of the final hearing of the NGT case. He said that SPS Construction is responsible for clearing the debris. “A committee has been formed to examine the reasons that led to the collapse. Their report will be sent to the National Mission for Clean Ganga. So, it will not be appropriate for me to comment on it further.”
Hours later, the order came. The NGT disposed of the case with a direction to the Bhagalpur District Magistrate to ensure that the debris is completely removed by the Bihar Rajya Pul Nirman Nigam Ltd. or by the contractor engaged by it by December 31. The court also asked him to file a Compliance Report by January 15, 2026.
The case concluded on July 9 this year.
NGT advocate Gaurav Bansal said the tribunal appointed the Bhagalpur DM as nodal officer to clear the debris, with no penalty imposed and no further hearings needed. Calling it a “welcome move,” Bansal stressed that dolphin habitats must be protected and urged authorities to meet the deadline, warning that failure could prompt penalties.
Dr. Anil Kumar, a scientist at the Zoological Survey of India’s Gangetic Plain Regional Centre in Patna, says bridge collapses in dolphin habitats are a major threat. “These collapses can injure or kill dolphins,” he says. “They also force dolphins to leave the area and move to other places. The dolphins usually return once most of the debris is cleared.”
Environmental activist Bhavreen Kandhari calls the repeated bridge collapses catastrophic for the river ecosystem. “The Ganga dolphin relies on echolocation to navigate already murky waters. When you add bridge debris, industrial waste, and reduced river flow, it becomes a death trap,” she said. “Protecting this species needs more than cleanup. We need to rethink how we build bridges over our rivers.”
Bihar had over a dozen bridge collapses in 2024 alone, from small culverts in rural areas to major spans like the Agwani-Sultanganj bridge. Infrastructure has become a hot-button issue in this Bihar election. But with conservation efforts hanging in the balance, the path forward remains uncertain in the sense that no one knows when the debris will be cleared or the bridge will be constructed.
As Bihar prepares to elect a new government by mid-November, questions remain. Will Divakar Prasad Yadav, Kajal Devi, and Suman Kumar see the bridge completed during the new government’s tenure? Will the debris be cleared before the new deadline?
And will the dolphins remain with threats in their habitat hotspots?
This story was produced with support from Internews’ Earth Journalism Network.
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