SASARAM, Dec. 31 -- The Bihar government has suspended the project engineer and junior engineer and blacklisted the contractor in connection with the ropeway accident that occurred during a trial run on December 26 in Rohtas district. The Rs.13.65-crore ropeway project, being executed by the Bihar Rajya Pul Nirman Nigam Limited (BRPNNL) to provide access to the historic and otherwise inaccessible Rohtasgarh Fort, collapsed during a trial run on Friday. Officials said the load was increased during the trial, following which a wire rope slipped, partially damaging the upper terminal station. No loss of life was reported. The ropeway was being constructed to promote tourism in Rohtas district by easing the difficult climb from Rohtas block headquarters Akbarpur to the historic Chaurasan Temple located atop Rohtasgarh Fort. The 1,324-metre-long ropeway comprises five pillars and 12 trolley cabins, each with a seating capacity of four persons. It was scheduled to be operational from January 1, 2026, officials said. The contract for the project was awarded to Ropeway and Resources Private Limited (RRPL). Construction began in February 2020 with a stipulated completion period of 14 months, but the work could not be completed even after nearly six years. Industries and road construction minister Dilip Jaiswal told mediapersons on Tuesday that the state government had constituted a high-level committee, headed by the managing director of BRPNNL, to probe the incident and submit its report within 24 hours. He said the government had also ordered a design audit and quality check by IIT Patna. Jaiswal said the probe report revealed serious negligence on the part of the construction company as well as the engineers concerned. The report also pointed to technical flaws and lapses in safety protocols during the trial run. Following this, the project engineer and junior engineer were suspended, and the process to blacklist the construction company was initiated. IIT Patna is currently conducting the design audit and quality assessment of the project, he added. Local villagers, including Santosh Kumar, and Chaurasan Temple Committee member Mukesh Singh alleged that they had raised concerns with the tourism department from the very beginning regarding the use of substandard materials and the shallow foundation of the ropeway pillars, which they claimed were only two feet deep. They said they had also shown the poor-quality materials to the tourism secretary during his visit, but no action was taken. BRPNNL chairman Chandrashekhar Singh said suspension and initiation of disciplinary proceedings against the concerned project engineer and junior engineer for lack of monitoring and supervision had begun. He added that the construction agency had been blacklisted from future works and that rectification of the damaged work would be carried out strictly as per the terms of the agreement....