Online Desk: An under-construction four-lane bridge over the Ganges river in India’s state of Bihar came crashing down like a house of cards last evening. A guard working near the bridge has gone missing, and rescue officials are trying to trace him, NDTV reports.

The bridge in Bhagalpur connects the districts of Sultanganj and Khagaria and its construction was opened in 2014 by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. The chief minister demanded an investigation into the incident and vowed to severely punish the officials at fault. “Yes, I have received the information that 4-5 pillars of the Aguwani-Sultanganj under-construction bridge collapsed. The administration is in touch with officials of the department concerned,” Bhagalpur District Magistrate Subrat Kumar Sen was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.

Meanwhile, Bihar’s Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav said at a press conference, “It may be recalled that a portion of this bridge had collapsed on April 30 last year. We had, thereafter, approached IIT-Roorkee, which is esteemed for its expertise in construction matters, to conduct a study. It is yet to come up with a final report but experts who had studied the structure had informed us that there were serious defects.”

The bridge was said to have involved an estimated cost of 1,700 crore rupees, an NDTV report said. Samrat Choudhary, the state BJP president, alleged that “corruption is rampant” in the Nitish Kumar-led Bihar government, the report added.