<p>On Sunday evening, the country was treated to the shocking sight of a 3-km-long bridge, which was under construction on the Ganga in Bihar, collapsing into the water. It looked like a scene from a movie but was a realistic image that showed how the standards of public works are sinking in the country. It was less than eight months ago that a bridge collapsed in Morbi in Gujarat in which about 150 people died. Many bridges and other constructions develop cracks and become unfit for use soon after they are made. A three-year-old road overbridge in Kochi built at a cost of Rs 50 crore had to be demolished in 2020 as it developed cracks. Parts of an expressway in Bundelkhand caved in last year a week after Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated it. There are many other cases of poor and shoddy construction of bridges, buildings, roads, and other structures all over the country. </p>.<p>The Bihar bridge, which was to link Bhagalpur and Khagaria districts, attracted special attention not only because of the spectacle of its collapse but because it was a major work costing about Rs 1,700 crore. It has missed many deadlines in the past. Some pillars of the bridge had collapsed last year, and it was attributed to wind and rain. It was not explained how the concrete pillars of a bridge can be blown away by wind. Deputy Chief Minister Tejaswi Yadav has said that experts from IIT-Roorkee had found serious structural defects in the bridge but there is no explanation as to why the defects were not corrected in time. The entire project is to be abandoned now and everything has to start from the beginning if a bridge is to be built at all in that place. </p>.<p>Contractors are certainly to blame for the shoddy work. But the blame also should go to the politicians and the bureaucrats because it is a nexus involving all three of them that is always at work to cause buildings and bridges to fall and roads to crack. The rates of commission shared by them may vary from place to place, but no work is undertaken without these commissions. There is a level of impunity also about it because it is only rarely that anyone has gone to jail or has otherwise been punished for shoddy work. Those who were responsible for the Morbi tragedy were not even arrested for months. Unless the guilty are held accountable and made to pay for their crimes, the quality and standards of work will not get any better and no construction will be safe. </p>
<p>On Sunday evening, the country was treated to the shocking sight of a 3-km-long bridge, which was under construction on the Ganga in Bihar, collapsing into the water. It looked like a scene from a movie but was a realistic image that showed how the standards of public works are sinking in the country. It was less than eight months ago that a bridge collapsed in Morbi in Gujarat in which about 150 people died. Many bridges and other constructions develop cracks and become unfit for use soon after they are made. A three-year-old road overbridge in Kochi built at a cost of Rs 50 crore had to be demolished in 2020 as it developed cracks. Parts of an expressway in Bundelkhand caved in last year a week after Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated it. There are many other cases of poor and shoddy construction of bridges, buildings, roads, and other structures all over the country. </p>.<p>The Bihar bridge, which was to link Bhagalpur and Khagaria districts, attracted special attention not only because of the spectacle of its collapse but because it was a major work costing about Rs 1,700 crore. It has missed many deadlines in the past. Some pillars of the bridge had collapsed last year, and it was attributed to wind and rain. It was not explained how the concrete pillars of a bridge can be blown away by wind. Deputy Chief Minister Tejaswi Yadav has said that experts from IIT-Roorkee had found serious structural defects in the bridge but there is no explanation as to why the defects were not corrected in time. The entire project is to be abandoned now and everything has to start from the beginning if a bridge is to be built at all in that place. </p>.<p>Contractors are certainly to blame for the shoddy work. But the blame also should go to the politicians and the bureaucrats because it is a nexus involving all three of them that is always at work to cause buildings and bridges to fall and roads to crack. The rates of commission shared by them may vary from place to place, but no work is undertaken without these commissions. There is a level of impunity also about it because it is only rarely that anyone has gone to jail or has otherwise been punished for shoddy work. Those who were responsible for the Morbi tragedy were not even arrested for months. Unless the guilty are held accountable and made to pay for their crimes, the quality and standards of work will not get any better and no construction will be safe. </p>