10 years and many collapses later, Bihar rolls out bridge maintenance policy

Drafted by Bihar Rajya Pul Nirman Nigam Limited (BRPNNL), the new policy comes at a time when a spate of bridge collapse in the last three weeks has put the ruling Janata Dal (United)-led Nitish Kumar government in a tight spot.

Under the new policy, departments such as road construction, water resources, and building construction are required to issue “health cards” with detailed records of their inspection and maintenance. This is also applicable to bridges constructed from MP and MLALAD funds.

Significantly, about 6,200 of these bridges were constructed since 2005, when Nitish Kumar had taken over as Bihar’s chief minister.

Under the new policy, although the BRPNNL, which comes under the Road Construction Department, will be the nodal agency to maintain big bridges, it would be the responsibility of the departments concerned to maintain these bridges.

Under the new policy, departments such as road construction, water resources, and building construction are required to issue “health cards” with detailed records of their inspection and maintenance. This is also applicable to bridges constructed from MP and MLALAD funds. (X/Saran_dm)

The policy also makes provision for physical and video inspection bridges at least twice a year.

“There will be two routine inspections, one of which has to be a must before monsoons. If there is any desilting exercise planned, the bridge must be inspected under supervision of experts and any senior engineer of the department under control of a particular department. Each department would be sanctioned a fund devoted for maintenance of its bridges,” a senior RCD official said.

The new policy aims to make sure the right officials — from the chief engineer’s position right down junior engineer — are held accountable, he said.

“For bigger bridges, the government could hire services of consultants,” the official said, adding that the department had studied bridge maintenance policy from several countries in order to draw up their own.

The state has about 30 big bridges and 1,200 that are over 60-metre long.

The policy rollout comes at a time when the Opposition parties, led by once ally Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), have been demanding accountability for collapses. After the latest collapse earlier this week, RJD leader and former Bihar deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav accused the state government of corruption.

“Since the day Nitish Kumar became the CM, if we leave aside only 18 months, then the entire time the Rural Works Department has been with the JD(U). This ministry and Bihar are constantly witnessing corruption. Incidents of crime are constantly happening in Bihar. This is an amazing game of double engine, one engine is engaged in corruption and one engine is engaged in crime,” he said, referring to Nitish Kumar’s RJD and its ally BJP.

The state government has, meanwhile, suspended 15 engineers over bridge collapse.