Bihar: String of Bridge Collapses Exposes Rampant Corruption

Patna: A series of bridge collapses in Bihar in the past two weeks has heated up political atmosphere in the state, leading to a war of words between the ruling Bharatiya Janata party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD)-led Mahagathbandhan, both blaming each other for it. However, the truth is that the number of bridge collapses have exposed rampant corruption in construction, the quality of material used and maintenance.

Since June 18 till July 4, about 12 bridges collapsed in the state. These include old, new and under-construction bridges.

The collapse of a bridge is not new in Bihar. In recent years, this has been reported time and again. What is surprising this time is the never before have so many bridges collapsed in a span of two weeks.

“Deep-rooted corruption in construction and negligence of proper maintenance work are two main reasons for these collapses. A powerful nexus of contractors, engineers, top officials and politicians have been looting public money by using inferior material, lapses in design and proper care.” a retired officer of the state bridge construction department, who has worked for over three decades, told NewsClick on the condition of anonymity.

He appears right as none other than the additional chief secretary of the state water resources department, Chaitanya Prasad, admitted to the local media here on Thursday that sub-standard construction of bridges might be a key reason behind the recent incident of bridge collapses.

Prasad reportedly also blamed unscientific desilting around the pillars of bridges by contractors ahead of the monsoon.

However, a middle rank official of the department, told NewsClick on Friday that after road construction, bridge construction is an easy route to mint money by contractors, engineers and politicians.

“No one cares for the standard of materials used for bridge construction, design and supervision. All of them have been working to increase their share in the loot at the cost of poor construction of bridges”, he added.

According to him, things won’t change, the government will take time to probe into the bridge collapses and will initiate action against a few engineers and officials but will not touch the main culprits. Soon, people will forget everything and the bridge collapses will become a part of documents, only for government records.

In the past few days, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav has repeatedly questioned the silence of Bihar chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Prime Minister Narendra Modi over one after another bridge collapsing in Bihar. He has termed the bridge collapses as an example of “mangalkari” (beneficial) corruption of the “double engine” NDA governments in the state and at the Centre.

“They are thinking about how to convert this beneficial corruption into Jungle Raj. Both are silent and speechless, what about their tall claims of good governance and corruption-free governance? The fact is that rampant corruption has surfaced following the number of bridge collapses”, Yadav said.

Two Bihar ministers, Ashok Choudhary and Prem Kumar, have blamed Yadav, the former Deputy Chief, for bridge collapses. Prem Kumar reportedly said that bridges built during RJD’s tenure were crumbling. But, the fact is that most of the bridges that collapsed recently were 10-15 years old or more.

On Friday, Tejashwi Yadav said he was in charge of Rural Works Department (RWD) for 17 months during his tenure as Deputy CM from mid-July to January 28, 2024. “This department has been always headed by a minister from Janata Dal-United (JD-U) quota for 17-18 years since the NDA government led by Nitish Kumar come to power in 2005. Most of the bridges that collapsed were built during their tenure, not 17 months of mine”, he said.

Interestingly, a senior BJP leader, Nikhil Anand, on July 4, posted on X that he was afraid of crossing any bridge in the state.

“I am afraid of crossing through any flyover or bridge in Bihar. Surprised that in last 10 days half a dozen bridges have collapsed. A
serious probe & auditing is needed. The responsibility be fixed on the construction company, blacklist them. The engineers must be booked," he posted on X.

When NewsClick tried to repeatedly approach him for his comments on X, Anand refused to say anything. He appears to be under immense pressure not to say anything more after his post on social media created a controversy.

In the last fortnight, incidents of bridge collapse were reported in over half a dozen districts, such as Siwan, Madhubani, Araria, East Champaran and Kishanganj.

Meanwhile, an advocate, Brajesh Singh, filed a PIL (public interest litigation) in the Supreme Court two days ago, seeking directions to the state government to undertake a structural audit and set up an expert committee to identify vulnerable bridges.

Soon after that, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, on July 3, directed the road construction and rural works departments to conduct a survey of all old bridges in the state and identify those that require immediate repair.