Built To Fall
Between 2021 and 2025, 170 bridges fell across India. The government only counted 42. This is the story of the other 128.
170 Bridges Collapsed. The Government Counted 42. Here Is How That Gap Happens And Who It Protects
In June 2024, a bridge in Munger district, Bihar collapsed without warning. 80,000 people were cut off. Farmers could not move produce. Families could not reach hospitals. Students could not reach examination centres. The state government announced an inquiry within 48 hours. That inquiry's findings have not been published.
In Gujarat in 2025, a bridge called Gambhira collapsed and killed 21 people. Before it fell, it had passed its most recent structural inspection. The engineer who certified it fit for use was transferred to another posting after the collapse.
Not arrested. Not charged. Just transferred. These two incidents are not exceptional. They are the rhythm of infrastructure failure in India, which goes like - incident, inquiry, transfer, silence, next tender.
What the Data Actually Shows
Between 2021 and 2025, investigative journalists at Newslaundry documented 170 bridge collapses across India. Those collapses killed 202 people and injured 441 more. The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways' official count for the same period: 42 collapses.
That is not a minor discrepancy. The government's number is less than 25% of what ground-level journalism verified. Either the government can not count what is happening in its own country, or it has chosen not to.
Bihar recorded 26 collapses in this period, 15 of them in 2024 alone, with 12 occurring within a single 20 day window. One collapse every 40 hours.
Uttarakhand recorded 25. Himachal Pradesh 17. Gujarat 16, including Morbi in 2022, where 141 people died, after a renovation-certified bridge collapsed into the Machchhu river. India spent Rs 5,300 crore on roads and bridges in the 2024-25 budget. 82% of that allocation was utilized. 48 bridges still collapsed that year.
The problem is not the money.
| State | Collapses | Notable Incident |
|---|---|---|
| Bihar | 26 | Munger Bichli Pul - isolated 80,000 residents |
| Uttarakhand | 25 | Chamoli Bailey Bridge - cut off 4,000 residents |
| Himachal Pradesh | 17 | Multiple monsoon-season failures |
| Gujarat | 16 | Gambhira Bridge - 21 dead |
| Jammu & Kashmir | 14 | Multiple valley crossings |
| Madhya Pradesh | 12 | Aishbagh rail overbridge |
| Uttar Pradesh | 8 | Under-construction failures |
Why It Keeps Happening: The L1 System
To understand bridge collapses in India, you need to understand one acronym: L1. Lowest Bidder 1. Almost every public infrastructure contract in India is awarded to the contractor who submits the lowest bid. Not the most qualified. Not the one with the best safety record. The cheapest.
The logic is meant to protect taxpayers from overpriced contracts. In practice, it produces the opposite: a contractor who wins by bidding 20 to 30% below the realistic cost of quality construction has already decided what they will compromise before the first brick is laid.
The compensation mechanism works in predictable stages.
A kickback estimates suggest 10 to 20% of contract value is paid to the officials responsible for awarding the tender.
Materials are substituted: lower grade cement, thinner steel rods, cheaper concrete.
The quality inspector is bribed to certify construction that would otherwise fail. The bridge is built.
Then the minister arrives. The ribbon is cut. The press release is distributed. The bridge stands long enough for the photographs to age. Then, sometimes in the first monsoon, sometimes in the third year, sometimes in the tenth, it falls. When it falls, the official cause is almost always one of three things: natural calamity, aging infrastructure, or overloading by users. Never substandard cement. Never a bribed inspector. Never a fraudulent tender.
"In 170 verified bridge collapses over four years, resulting in 202 deaths, IPC Section 304A produced meaningful contractor accountability in three cases. Three out of 170."
The Data That Indicts the System
| Data Point | Figure | What It Means |
|---|---|---|
| Bridge collapses 2021-2025 | 170 | One every 8-9 days for 4 years |
| Deaths | 202 | More than one per collapse on average |
| Official govt count | 42 | Less than 25% of verified reality |
| Contractor accountability | 3 out of 170 | 1.7% accountability rate |
| Mumbai bridges deemed unfit | 40% | Still operating today |
| Bihar collapses in 20 days | 12 | One every 40 hours |
The government's own assessment of Mumbai's bridges found that 40% of them are unfit for use. They remain open. No public announcement was made about which ones. No timeline for closure or repair was given.
The report was filed and the bridges continued carrying daily traffic. There is no publicly searchable national database of bridge inspection certifications. You cannot look up the name of the engineer who certified the bridge you cross every morning. You cannot check when it was last inspected.
You cannot find out who built it or what their safety record is. That absence is not accidental. A searchable public record creates accountability. The absence of one protects everyone in the chain.
Who Is Responsible
The same political network that controls which contractors receive tenders also controls the officials who inspect those contracts and the ministers who announce the inquiries when they fail. Prosecuting the contractor means pulling a thread that connects back through the inspector to the tender committee to the ministry.
No elected official has the structural incentive to pull that thread. So the thread stays unexamined. The inspector is transferred. The contractor registers a new firm under a different name. The next tender is issued. The cycle continues funded, every single time, by the Indian taxpayer
What Needs to Change
These are not radical demands. They are standard practice in every country India benchmarks itself against.
A mandatory 10-year post-construction maintenance bond for every infrastructure contractor. If your bridge falls within ten years, you are financially and criminally liable.
A publicly searchable national bridge safety certification database. Every bridge. The engineer who certified it. The date of last inspection. The contractor who built it. Public. Permanent.
A ring-fenced 15% maintenance allocation in every infrastructure budget. India spent Rs 11.21 lakh crore on capex in 2025-26. None of it came with a mandatory maintenance line.
Criminal prosecution not administrative transfer for inspectors who certify unsafe structures.
The Record :
202 people died crossing bridges that had been certified safe. The families of those 202 people received inquiries, announcements, and transfers.
Three contractors faced meaningful consequence. The question is not whether India can afford to fix this system. India spent Rs 11.21 lakh crore on capex last year.
The question is whether the system that benefits from the current arrangement will allow it to be fixed. That answer depends entirely on how many people stop accepting the current arrangement as normal.
This was the first story you read on Unrecorded, there are many more where this came from.
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