10 Barak Valley PWD engineers suspended; Harang bridge collapse among cases

Assam's Public Works Department has suspended 10 engineers in one sweep over bridge collapses, substandard work and weak supervision, and nine of them work in the Barak Valley. The action, reported on Saturday night and Sunday by The Times of India, India Today NE, The Sentinel, Pratidin Time and NewzNow, runs from a superintending engineer down to junior engineers across four divisions.

It also comes as the state tightens its rules on suspensions, so these cases now run on a clock.

Who was suspended, division by division

• Kalgachia/Katlicherra-Borkhola division (Roads) (TOI calls it Katigorah-Borkhola): executive engineer Kallol Nath and junior engineer Joydeep (Jaydeep) Nath. The Times of India reported that their suspension is linked to the collapse of the Harang bridge.
• Dholai-Sonai division: assistant executive engineers Piyush (Pijush) Choudhury and Ratul Das.
• Patharkandi-Ramkrishna Nagar division: executive engineer Saibal (Shaibal) Biswas and assistant executive engineer Subrata Das.
• Hailakandi division: executive engineer Subhendu Das, assistant executive engineer Anamur Rahman Barbhuiya, also known as Babu Barbhuiya, and junior engineer Amir Hussain Choudhury (also spelt Amir Hossain).
• Haflong, Dima Hasao: Shakil Ahmed, superintending engineer of the PWD's North Eastern Council wing. He was suspended for alleged irregularities during his earlier posting as executive engineer of the Dholai-Sonai division, all five outlets reported.

Departmental sources told The Times of India the allegations involve poor monitoring, quality lapses and weak supervision. The orders have not been made public. Apart from Harang, none of the reports says which bridge or work each suspension relates to.

The collapses behind the crackdown

Harang, June 2025. A bridge over the Harang river at Bhangarpar on the Silchar-Kalain road gave way in the early hours of June 18, 2025, as two stone-laden trucks crossed it, the Hindustan Times and The Assam Tribune reported. The bridge had reopened only a month earlier after nearly two years of repair work that reportedly cost Rs 1.37 crore. Zila parishad member Farida Parvin Laskar told the Hindustan Times that the bridge's limit was 40 tonnes but the trucks were carrying 120 to 130 tonnes. Police arrested five people, including weighbridge staff, and took three policemen off duty, India Today NE reported then. With NH-6's Gammon Bridge at Katigorah shut for repairs at the time, its loss briefly cut the valley's road links with Tripura, Mizoram and Manipur.

Anipur, February 2026. On February 11, a bridge over the Singla river at Anipur, on the Ramkrishna Nagar-Sribhumi PWD road, collapsed when two overloaded dumpers tried to cross together. Four pedestrians were hurt, The Times of India reported, while the Hindustan Times put the number at two. The Sribhumi district commissioner, Pradeep Kumar Dwivedi, ordered a magistrate-level inquiry and said the dumpers were allegedly working on the Bharatmala project. Local MLA Bijoy Malakar told the Hindustan Times the bridge dated from 2004. NewzNow illustrated Sunday's suspension report with this bridge, though no outlet has formally tied a named engineer to it.

Both collapses were first blamed on overloading. This time the department has turned on its own engineers.

What this means for Barak Valley

Cachar, Hailakandi and Sribhumi rely on ageing PWD bridges that now also carry heavy Bharatmala and highway works traffic. NEInsider reported on November 1 that Cachar farmers blamed a Bharatmala road embankment collapse for ruining about 100 bighas of farmland. Earlier this month, Hailakandi suspended an agriculture officer after a Farmer Registry review, and the Silchar civic body suspended its accounts chief.

Suspending four divisions' engineers at once also has a practical cost. The Hailakandi division has lost its executive engineer, assistant executive engineer and a junior engineer together. Ongoing works there will need officers placed in charge.

What happens next

Under a new Department of Personnel order, reported by The Sentinel on November 15, disciplinary authorities must serve a charge sheet within 90 days of a suspension. If that is not possible, they must issue a reasoned extension order before the 90 days run out. Every suspension must also be reviewed every 90 days. The order supersedes an office memorandum of February 4, 2020, and follows the Supreme Court's ruling in Ajay Kumar Choudhary vs Union of India. If the suspensions date from around November 14, charge sheets or extension orders fall due by about February 12, 2027.

Suspended staff must stay at a designated headquarters and be paid subsistence allowance. Revoking a suspension before proceedings end will need a detailed order from the senior-most departmental secretary, with the approval of the minister in charge and the Chief Minister.

NEInsider will track whether charge sheets are served on time, and whether the inquiry findings on Harang and Anipur are published.