Bihar bridges' collapse: Supreme Court seeks response from Nitish Kumar government, others on plea for structural audit of structures

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday sought a response from the Bihar government on a plea to conduct the highest level of structural audit of all such existing and under-construction bridges in the state, after the collapse of a number of structures over there in recent times.

A bench of Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra sought a response from the Nitish Kumar government and the National Highways Authority of India.

The plea filed by Brajesh Singh also sought a direction to demolish or retrofit weak structures depending upon feasibility.

The plea also sought direction from the Bihar government for making proper and effective policies or mechanisms for real-time monitoring of the bridges.

The petitioner said that day by day, the major incidents of unfortunate loss to human lives as well as loss to the public exchequer were taking place due to the gross negligence of the government and the corrupt nexus of contractors and concerned agencies.

His plea also asked the court to pass appropriate directions to the state government for making an efficient permanent body through legislation or executive order, comprising of high-level experts from concerned fields for the continuous monitoring of all existing and under-construction bridges.

Such a body should also be held responsible for maintaining the comprehensive database on the health of all the existing bridges in the state, it said.

The plea also contended, "Back to back collapse of the bridges in Bihar clearly indicates that there has been no lessons learnt and safety of critical infrastructure like bridges is not taken seriously and these routine incidents cannot be termed merely accidents as it is manmade disasters."

In June, 2024, within 11 days, four bridges had collapsed, the majority of them in an under-construction stage, putting the right to sound infrastructure, a facet of right to life under Article 21 of the Constitution under shadow due to inaction of the authorities, it stated.

The petitioner also said that it was a matter of grave concern that in the state like Bihar, which is the most flood-prone state of India, the total flood affected area in the state is 68,800 sq km, about 73.06 per cent of the total geographical area of it, such routine accrual of the incident of falling bridges in Bihar is more disastrous as the lives of people at large at stake.

The petitioner said an urgent intervention of this court is required to save the lives of people at large, living in uncertainty, as the under-construction bridges before its accomplishment collapsed in a routine manner.