Pothole Nation

17 days and rain is all it took to stump a ₹16cr bridge. Are we no longer building infra to last? 

Just 17 days after a ₹16cr bridge was inaugurated in Dehradun, a cavernous pit has opened near it. In another country, authorities might feel mortified, fall over themselves apologising and atoning. Here, the monsoon gets the blame. C’mon, it rained so much, for so long. Yes, but Japan’s roads survive typhoons and Canada’s survive blizzards. India itself has roads and bridges that have carried generations. In Prayagraj, Bridge No. 30 has been carrying trains across the Yamuna since 1865. In Jaunpur, a bridge commissioned by Akbar still carries light vehicles across the Gomti. What’s changed? 

Perhaps our govts are embracing the use-and-throw logic of consumer goods. They are engineering infra for inauguration, not for permanence. That’s why, up and down the country, potholes are becoming an infra audit. They expose poor drainage, shoddy materials, flawed engineering and oversight. CAG does audits too. Its recent audit of PWD roads in MP found blacklisted contractors continuing to get contracts, delays resulting in price escalations rather than penalties, and completion certificates being issued when work was incomplete. It has published many such audits. Consider, too, an earlier study of India’s rural roads programme, which found that after close elections, contractors sharing a name with the winning politician increased by 63%. So, the rains are not exposing the roads, as much as corruption. With the rising scale and visibility of construction, citizens pay a rising price for the neta-builder nexus. 

When a road fails, it disrupts traffic, damages vehicles, causes accidents, even kills. Filling the pothole afterwards, patching the bridge, resurfacing the road, none of this wins govts brownie points. Nor does Bengaluru, for making citizens photograph potholes for BBMP. The real reform that’s needed is to penalise potholed projects’ builders. Infrastructure should come with a long warranty. And we shouldn’t have to worry, when the next bridge is inaugurated, how long it will work after the people who cut the ribbon have left.

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