Dr. Satyawan Saurabh
The recent collapse of a 40-year-old bridge in Vadodara is not just a local tragedy, but a reflection of the crumbling reality of infrastructure across India. Such accidents are no longer shocking, but have become habitual evidence of a repeated “system failure”. Every time after the accident, the same old statements, the same superficial investigation committee, and then the same silence – until the next bridge collapses.
India is running on the path of development, but in this race, the roads, bridges and buildings on which this progress is based have themselves started crumbling long ago. The question is not why the bridge in Vadodara collapsed, the question is how many more such bridges across the country are on the verge of collapse and what have we learnt from them so far?
India has a long list of incidents of collapse of public infrastructure in the last decade. In 2016, Kolkata’s Vivekananda flyover collapsed during construction, killing 27 people. In 2018, many people were killed when part of a bridge collapsed in Varanasi. In 2022, more than 130 people died when a cable bridge collapsed in Morbi, Gujarat. And now in 2024, a bridge collapsed in Vadodara. Earlier, incidents of bridge collapse have also occurred in Bihar, Uttarakhand, Himachal and Assam.
The pattern of these accidents is clear — old infrastructure, poor construction materials, lax inspection systems and completely absent accountability.
Most of India’s bridges, buildings and public structures were built 30 to 60 years ago. At that time, neither the impact of climate change was so severe, nor the burden of traffic and population was so high. But they never got timely repairs. The mentality of “it’s built, so it’s built” slowly turned these structures into death wells.
Awarding the contract to the lowest bidder in the tender process, then cutting the budget of the same contractor, using cheap materials – all this has become so common that we have forgotten to consider it corruption. This is an institutional corruption in which the administration, contractors and sometimes even politicians are involved.
Have you ever seen a board near a bridge that says – “When was this bridge last inspected?” Rarely. The reason is obvious – the process called inspection is confined to papers. Despite being the age of technology, India does not have any centralized bridge health monitoring system.
In the last few years, there has been an increase in the incidence of abnormal rainfall, floods, extreme heat and earthquakes. But most of our structures were not designed keeping these new challenges in mind. Weak foundations, poor drainage and ignoring landslides are the result.
In India, infrastructure is often used as a political stunt, but serious planning for long-term structural stability is rarely seen. “Fit for photo” projects are built, which also collapse quickly.
Every year governments pass budgets worth thousands of crores on infrastructure. Huge investments are made in projects like bridge construction, road expansion, urban housing scheme. But where does this budget actually go? If the bridge is falling down, it means that either the budget has not reached the ground level, or it has been misused.
Now in India, development should not be discussed in terms of the pace of the economy but in terms of the number of bridges collapsing.
If we want to make India safe, sustainable and strong, we must ensure reliability of infrastructure.
Independent structural testing of all bridges, buildings, flyovers etc. older than twenty years should be made mandatory once every three years. Its findings should be available on a public portal.
An independent National Infrastructure Inspection Authority should be set up which is solely responsible for inspection, rating and reporting. Its reports should be free from government interference.
Sensors should be installed in bridges to monitor vibrations, load, temperature etc. Artificial intelligence based systems can give immediate warning on any irregularity.
It is time to stop the tender system from being based only on the lowest bid. Construction agencies should be selected on the basis of quality, technical capability and past performance.
Local bodies should be made partners in monitoring small structures. Citizens should be trained at the rural and urban level so that they can provide timely information about potential risks.
Every structure should be designed keeping in mind the threats of climate change. The standards of institutions like the Bureau of Indian Standards and the Road Development Council should be strictly implemented.
Where the government’s intentions are weak, the role of the media and civil society becomes even more important. There is coverage after a bridge collapses, but do we ever remember the name of the construction agency? Was a criminal case registered against any contractor?
It is important to create a public accountability model by bringing together RTI activists, journalists and technology experts.
In the race of rapid urbanization and development, India is ignoring security and stability. In such a situation, the question arises – are we only building bridges or are we also building bridges of trust? Because when a bridge collapses, not only the concrete breaks, but the public’s trust in the administration also shatters.
India can have a great future, but its foundation needs to be strong. The Vadodara bridge has collapsed, tomorrow it will collapse somewhere else — if we do not change our vision and policy. We have to move beyond reactive governance to a proactive infrastructure policy. Otherwise, we will continue to build graveyards of bridges and pick up dead bodies of citizens every year.
Infrastructure should not be viewed only from the viewpoint of construction, but also from the viewpoint of safety of human life. Only a policy of conservation and improvement, not just construction, will lead the country towards a sustainable future.
(The author is a freelancer and can be reached at [email protected])
