The collapse of the ill fated Gambhira Bridge, over the Mahi River in Gujarat, that caused 21 deaths, has focussed an unforgiving spotlight on the poor condition of public infrastructure in India. This is not an isolated instance; last year, in Bihar, twelve bridges collapsed in a span of seventeen days.

Recently, two weird bridges in Bhopal and Andhra Pradesh, with ninety-degree turns, and an under-construction Z-shaped bridge in Indore, puzzled newspaper readers. Then, there was the strange case of a bridge built in Bihar, in the middle of a field, with no road on either side. Nothing except venality and a brazen disregard for rules and norms is the reason for such mis conceived, expensive, and dangerous projects. Hearing a PIL about Bihar’s collapsing bridges, the Supreme Court observed that the Bihar government’s explanation of frequent incidents of bridge collapse in the State was merely a long list of “schemes, policies, etc” without giving any reason, for the collapse of multi-crore structures that endangered lives of the public.

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The Gambhira Bridge collapse shows that no lessons were learnt by the government from the Morbi bridge collapse three years ago, which had killed 141 people. To recapitulate: startling facts emerged after the Gujarat High Court took suo motu cognisance of the Morbi tragedy. The operator’s agreement with the municipality, which authorised the operator to collect a fee of Rs.17 per person, was silent about the operator’s responsibility for safety. Rather, the agreement stated that there would be no interference by the Government or State agencies, in the maintenance or administrative tasks assigned to the contractor.

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The level of negligence of authorities could be gauged from the fact that the repair of the bridge was limited only to polishing and painting the weight-bearing suspension cables and replacing the wooden flooring of the bridge by a four-layered aluminium one ~ which made the bridge significantly heavier. This gross negligence had a monetary motive ~ only Rs.12 lakh was spent on repairs, out of a sanctioned sum of Rs.2 crore. Then, at the time of collapse, more than three hundred people had been allowed on the bridge, while the bridge’s carrying capacity was only fifteen.

Before the High Court stepped in, the police fixed responsibility for the bridge collapse on two........

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