Indian commuters ‘risk their lives’ every day as more than 5,000 bridges need repair

Tragedy that killed 135 sparks safety fears over creaking colonial-era structures

The collapse of a bridge in Gujarat that left 135 people dead has prompted concerns over the safety of thousands of other colonial-era structures across India.

The bridge in Morbi was more than a century old when it snapped in two last month while families had gathered on it to enjoy an evening on the river. Many of those standing in the middle of the bridge plunged into the river and drowned, while others died from the impact of falling on to the stones and boulders below.

The Gujarat government, ruled by the Bharatiya Janata party (BJP), had given the contract for repairing the 100-year-old suspension bridge to a local company called Oreva, which makes clocks.

People live and work by Delhi’s Old Iron Bridge, built in 1866, on the Yamuna River. Photograph: Hindustan Times/Getty Images

Now fears are growing for India’s other ageing bridges. The country has about 173,000 bridges and about 36,470 of them were built under the Raj. Almost 6,700 are even older, with some built 140 years ago, according to the most recent information in the Railways Audit Report of 2015.

Many of them are technically “distressed”, meaning they are dilapidated, probably risky, and in need of urgent repair or reinforcement.

The Indian Bridge Management System centre estimates that at least 5,300 bridges are structurally distressed and need attention. One state alone, Uttar Pradesh, had as many as 226 distressed bridges in 2018.

Sahil Mhatre, a member of the Indian Institution of Bridge Engineers, said many distressed and old bridges were “structurally unaudited” and this was a matter of concern because those built by the British were intended for far smaller loads. “The government should be doing structural audits every three to four years, using strain gauge sensors to check the quality of the concrete for cracks or vibrations, to see if they can take the load on them. In modern bridges, sensors are embedded in the structure to sound alerts but India’s old bridges obviously don’t have them,” he said.

The rescue operation after the collapse of the Morbi suspension bridge last week. Photograph: Divyakant Solanki/EPA

In 2018, a parliamentary committee found that India’s railway bridges were a risk to passengers and in dire need of upgrading. It reprimanded the railways for inordinate delays in repairing distressed bridges, which it said resulted in “the possibility of compromising passenger safety”.

Its report also praised old British bridges for their quality: “While certain railway bridges constructed during British rule are in good condition, railway bridges constructed … after independence are of inferior quality and need frequent repair … [The] nexus between railway officials and a few contractors severely affects the quality and life of its construction.”

A bridge over the Yamuna River over in Allahabad. Photograph: Sanjay Kanojia/AFP/Getty Images

However, India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, has been notoriously critical of Britain’s legacy in India, targeting the English language and branding it a “colonial relic’ that has generated a “slavish mentality”. Abide with Me has been removed from India’s annual republic day celebrations and replaced with a Hindi patriotic song, and the Indian army is considering whether to do away with the English names of some army regiments.

But Modi’s critics have asked if his priorities are misplaced. “Instead of renaming streets and attacking English, the BJP would do better to face the real challenge, namely, to maintain colonial-era bridges that have lasted so long but are now coping with loads they were never intended to handle,” said commentator Parsa Venkateshwar Rao Jr.

One of them is the old Yamuna Bridge in the Indian capital, which was built in 1866, making it one of the oldest in the country. Poor labourers sleep and live under the iron girders.

“The thousands of commuters who use it every day are risking their lives. It was meant for horses, carriages and pack animals. Now it’s got trains and cars on it,” said Atul Bose, who works with slum dwellers in the area.

Jatin L Singh, founder of the Rail Enthusiasts’ Society, marvelled at how far-sighted British-era engineers were in designing bridges in such a way that they allowed for additional capacity to be added later.

“The former Jubilee Bridge over the River Hooghly in Calcutta, built to mark Queen Victoria’s 50th anniversary, opened in 1885. It had one track for trains but the engineers created capacity for two tracks in case it was needed in future, which of course it was,” said Singh. After 131 years, the bridge was decommissioned in 2016.

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