Bhubaneswar, Sept. 11: The state government has given a clean chit to its officials in the Gurupriya bridge collapse incident and held wind responsible for the accident.

A concrete slab of the under-construction Gurupriya bridge at Chitrokanda in Malkangiri collapsed following the caving in of its three girders on July 25. The slab of the 910-metre bridge fell between pillar Nos. 11 and 12. The slab collapsed when nearly 50 labourers were working on the spot. However, no one was injured.

The preliminary report on the incident has held nature's fury as responsible for the girders' collapse.

School and mass education minister Badri Naryan Patra, in a written reply, told the Assembly: 'According to the preliminary report, the girders had fallen down because of wind. It's not proper to blame any official for this incident.'

The clean chit to officials in this case comes close on the heels of suspension of two engineers in connection with the collapse of a portion of an under-construction railway overbridge near Bomikhal in Lakshmi Sagar police limits yesterday.

Patra, on behalf of chief minister Naveen Patnaik, was responding to Congress MLA Chandra Sekhar Majhi's question related to the Gurupriya bridge collapse.

However, the report was silent on what the wind speed was on that day and how many houses were destroyed because of it. The minister said: 'A technical committee has been formed under the chief engineer (roads). The contractor has started building the bridge again and completed the construction of the two girders. The construction of the bridge would be completed by December.' According to the earlier schedule, the bridge was supposed to be ready by September last year.

The foundation stone for the Gurupriya bridge had been laid in 1982 by the then chief minister, J.B. Patnaik. In 2000, Naveen had again laid its foundation stone.

Since its inception, the project has been through a number of bad phases. The contractors had repeatedly withdrawn from the project site because of Maoist threat.

At present, the bridge construction is going on in the presence of security personnel. Once the bridge comes up, it will connect Malkangiri's mainland with the 'cut-off' area and provide access to nearly 30,000 tribal people living in 25 panchayats.

The cut-off area is considered to be a safe haven for Maoists. The 25 panchayats got cut-off from the mainland after the Chitrakonda reservoir's construction in 1964 for the Balimela Hydel Project.

Though the government had made a number of attempts to build the bridge over the years, the work moved at a snail's pace primarily because of the Maoist threat.