Events & Issues
New
Delhi, 14 April 2016
Bridge Collapse Disasters
MAN-MADE, OR ‘ACT OF GOD’ ?
By Vinod Sharma
The latest incident of an
under-construction bridge collapse in Kolkata’s busy Bara Bazar area, which
claimed 27 innocent lives, has sounded alarming bells about the safety of
general public across the country. The tragedy also necessitates having a
re-look at the durability and viability of all existing as well as under-construction
over-bridges and flyovers in the country.
Surprisingly, the construction firm,
the Hyderabad-based Iragavarapu Venkata Reddy Construction Limited (IVRCL) has
conveniently termed the deadly collapse as an “accident”. An official of the
company even went to the extent of labelling it as an ‘act of God’, perhaps
being highly inspired by the bollywood film ‘Oh My God’ in which the
insurance company had refused to give claim to shop owner Paresh Rawal whose
shop got dramatically destroyed in a calamity and the insurer branded it an
‘act of God’. Invoking the same pretext, the construction firm denied any human
error in the unfortunate incident while putting the blame squarely on God.
Before going into details of similar
tragedies taking place in the country every now and then, let’s have a look at
the background of this ill-fated Kolkata bridge, which was hanging fire for the
past over eight years, as well as the reputation of the company bided for
construction. The construction for approximately 2 kms Vivekananda flyover was
contracted in 2008 and the work began in 2009. This was scheduled to complete
in 2010 but overshot the deadline multiple times. Chief Minister Mamata
Banerjee extended the deadline by 18 months to complete the flyover by February
this year and allocated a budget of nearly Rs 165 crore. But only about 60 per
cent work was completed. As of March last year, IVRCL accumulated a debt of
over Rs 4000 crore and reported losses of Rs 672 crore. In December 2015, a
consortium of banks that had lent to the company took it over and the company
had been banned from doing business in Uttar Pradesh and several other States.
Now the million-dollar question
arises: If this is the kind of image and controversial nature of the company
running in the red, how can one expect superlative end product consisting of
all safety standards to protect lives of its users? Perhaps not. Generally
speaking, in India,
bids for key infrastructural public projects worth crores of rupees, which
require high standards of safety parameters, are awarded on considerations
other than good market image, honesty and professionalism as well as economic
competence of the firm. Incessant use of sub-standard material, playing great
havoc with lives of people, becomes a routine affair where the supervisory
authorities prefer to turn a blind eye due to their chunk of money promised in
the project. Resultantly, the fate of such completed, or even uncompleted,
projects is there for all of us to see. How can we allow such unscrupulous
elements to play with precious lives of our fellow countrymen?
This is not the first incident of
bridge collapse in India.
We have had several such gory incidents in the past, but every time we refuse
to learn a lesson. For example, in December 2009, a deadly accident occurred
during construction of Kota-Chambal bridge in Rajasthan. At least 48 workers
had died when scaffolding on the under-construction bridge had collapsed. Small
incidents of bridge collapses are common occurrences which possibly take place
due to concerned construction firms’ greed of higher profits and rendering a
sub-standard product. And these elements always work hand-in-glove with sharks
in the system.
As a precautionary measure, the
Centre has ordered safety review of all ongoing highway and bridge projects
under the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI). Road and Transport
Minister Nitin Gadkari stated: “It is a cause of concern for our ministry and
the NHAI which are engaged in massive programmes of national highways
development with hundreds of structures coming up on these highways.”
He further advised to undertake
review of all the ongoing projects with a view to avoiding untoward incidents
in any of the ongoing projects.
It is pertinent to point out here
that recently the Central Government has also launched an ambitious programme
with an investment of Rs 50,000 crore of building bridges for safe and seamless
travel on national highways. The programme, named as Setu Bharatam, aims to make
all national highways free from Railway level crossings by 2019 with
construction of 208 Railway Over Bridges (ROBs) and Railway Under Bridges
(RUBs) at a cost of Rs 20,800 crore. Similarly, 1500 old bridges will be
rehabilitated and reconstructed at a cost of Rs 30,000 crore under the
programme. Undeniably, this programme will go a long way in averting major rail
and road collusions and will ensure smooth flow of traffic. Andhra Pradesh tops
the list with highest number of ROB/RUB with 33 projects under the scheme,
followed by West Bengal (22), Bihar (20), Karnataka (17), Jharkhand (11) and
Haryana and Punjab (10 each).
However, State governments have a
major role in ensuring safety of flyovers and bridges. This is possible only
when top class companies, with clean and above-board intentions and reputation,
will be entrusted with building impeccable quality bridges to address safety
concerns of the masses. Otherwise, unscrupulous firms and individuals will
continue kidding with people’s lives for their vested interests.
It is high time the States ensure
strict bidding rules and regulations for allotment of tenders to only deserving
construction firms while plugging loopholes in the system. Otherwise,
recurrence of Kolkata-like incidents is bound to bounce back with more
intensity and devastation.
For now, a fair probe into the
matter must lead to severe punishment to the erring company or individuals
responsible for snatching lives of innocents for no fault of theirs. It is the
State’s responsibility to save lives of its populace from such prime facie
seemingly man-made tragedies. Without any earthquake, cyclone, cloud-bursting
or tsunami or any other natural calamity, God will not come down personally to
cause the only under-construction bridge of Kolkata and having done no harm to
other adjoining structures!! Therefore, these filmy buff officials of the
construction firm only made fun of themselves while terming it an “act of God”
to save their skins, being perhaps fully aware of their chain of negligence and
lacuna. ---INFA
(Copyright, India News and Feature
Alliance)
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