Opinion Express View on Vadodara bridge collapse: Cost of maintenance failure is borne by general public

Three years after a suspension bridge collapse claimed 135 lives in Morbi, Gujarat, at least 13 people were killed on Wednesday when a 40-year-old bridge in Vadodara came apart, dragging multiple vehicles into the Mahisagar River. The structure that connects central Gujarat to the Saurashtra region had reportedly been showing signs of distress for more than three years. However, repeated warnings by local people, including panchayat leaders, did not receive attention from the Vadodara division of the Gujarat Roads and Buildings (R&B) Department. Vadodara’s district collector claims that the bridge had undergone repairs last year. But by all accounts, they only provided a band-aid to the ageing structure on which more than a lakh vehicles pass every day. The Gujarat government has announced a probe and sought a report from the district collector. Justice must be served and accountability fixed for negligence, but it’s time the state government, and its counterparts in other parts of the country, addressed the common failings that underlie the recurrent bridge collapses. These structures continue to crumble with frequency, despite the all-too-familiar conclusions of inquiries into past tragedies — Mumbai 2019, or Morbi 2022, Banaskantha a year later, or the 12 bridge collapses in a span of three weeks in Bihar last year. Structural audits are rarely conducted, contractors cut corners, officials pass the buck, engineering defects are ignored, government assurances after mishaps are never followed by meaningful action — and there are no political penalties for failure.

An analysis of bridge failures in India from 1977 to 2017 in the October 2020 edition of the international journal Structure and Infrastructure Engineering found that as many as 2,130 bridges have failed to be of use or collapsed in the past four decades. The study also concluded that bridges in the country have an average lifespan of 35 years compared to the global average of 50 years. Bridges require regular inspections and maintenance to address wear and tear. But, as the study pointed out, neglecting routine upkeep and failure to repair minor damage lead to problems accumulating over time, increasing the risk of collapse. The Morbi tragedy did lead to a belated recognition of this cardinal principle of maintenance, at least in Gujarat. The state government informed the Gujarat High Court that it had framed a policy for the inspection and upkeep of bridges in municipalities. However, the continued crumbling of bridges, even after the 2022 tragedy, suggests that the policy has remained on paper. The collapse of the Vadodara bridge barely a year after an R&B executive engineer found no “major defect” should compel the government to rethink — something is seriously wrong with its monitoring methods.

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Infrastructure development is among the major focus areas of the government. Over the past decade, the country has made significant investments in highways, airports, tunnels, dams, and ports. But the success of these mega projects should not take attention away from the potholed roads in almost every city in the country, tinderbox like buildings and fragile bridges. In the absence of a politics that shines the light on urban governance and draws lines of accountability, the failure to observe due diligence in the construction and maintenance of these structures is borne by the citizens.