Kinnaur, June 24 : A major disaster struck Himachal Pradesh’s Kinnaur district when a Bailey bridge on NH-5 gave way and plunged into the Sutlej River — and it took an overloaded gravel truck down with it.
The dramatic collapse, captured on CCTV, has since gone viral across social media platforms, sending shockwaves through the region and reigniting urgent questions about overloading, infrastructure safety, and the vulnerability of critical mountain road networks.
In what could have ended in tragedy, the truck driver managed to escape with only minor injuries — a narrow escape that authorities are describing as nothing short of miraculous given the scale of the collapse.
The incident unfolded on NH-5, one of the most vital highway arteries connecting the remote and mountainous Kinnaur district to the rest of Himachal Pradesh. The moment the overloaded vehicle drove onto the bridge, the structure — unable to bear the excessive weight — gave way entirely, sending both the bridge and the truck crashing into the Sutlej River below.
Authorities have since suspended all traffic on the affected stretch and diverted vehicles to alternative routes while restoration teams mobilise on the ground. However, with the bridge now gone, an entire region faces serious disruption to connectivity, supply chains, and daily movement.
Bailey bridges, by design, are temporary or semi-permanent military-grade structures widely used across India’s Himalayan terrain where permanent bridge construction is difficult. They are built to handle defined weight limits — limits that, when ignored, carry catastrophic consequences as this incident has made devastatingly clear.
One overloaded truck. One collapsed bridge. And an entire mountain district cut off from the rest of the world.
The viral CCTV footage has put the spotlight firmly back on the enforcement of vehicle overloading regulations on mountain highways — a long-standing issue that authorities have repeatedly struggled to control across Himachal Pradesh and the wider Himalayan region.
Restoration work is currently underway. No timeline has yet been announced for when connectivity will be fully restored to the affected area.
