PIL in SC against bridge collapses in Bihar

New Delhi, July 4 (IANS) A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) has been filed before the Supreme Court seeking a structural audit of all the recently completed, under-construction, and old bridges in Bihar.

The plea seeks directions to the Bihar government to establish a permanent body, comprising high-level experts, for continuous monitoring of all the existing and under-construction bridges and maintaining a comprehensive database on the health of all existing bridges.

The PIL filed by advocate Brajesh Singh said that the instant issue requires an urgent consideration of the apex court as within the last two years, three major under-construction bridges and several other incidents of bridge collapse happened in Bihar.

“Back-to-back collapse of bridges in Bihar clearly indicates that there have been no lessons learnt and safety of critical infrastructure like bridges is not taken seriously. These routine incidents cannot be termed merely accidents, they are manmade disasters,” it said.

The plea added that Bihar is the most flood-prone state in India. The total flood-affected area in the state is 68,800 sq. km. which is 73.06 per cent of its total geographical area hence such routine accrual of the incident of falling bridges in Bihar is more disastrous and therefore the urgent intervention of the Supreme Court is required to save the lives of people at large.

The PIL sought directions to the Bihar government to make a proper policy or mechanisms for real-time monitoring of the bridges constructed, old and under construction on the same analogy as developed by the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways.