PIL in Supreme Court Concerning Collapse of Bridges in Bihar seeking thorough structural audit of all Bridges

Advocate Brajesh Singh filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the Supreme Court (SC) regarding the collapse of 9 bridges, including under-construction bridges, in the last 15 days in the State of Bihar. The PIL seeks directions to the Bihar Government to initiate a thorough structural audit and constitute a high-level expert committee for identifying weak bridges. The PIL highlighted the collapse of multiple bridges around the river areas including the Madhubani, Araria, Kishanganj, and Siwan districts. Along with this, the petitioner also sought real-time monitoring of the bridges on the basis of the methodology developed by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, Government of India through its March 4, 2024 policy for Preservation of National Highways and Centrally Sponsored Scheme. The petitioner said, “It is a matter of grave concern that in a state like Bihar, which is the most flood-prone state of India, the total flood-affected area in the state is 68,800 sq. km which is 73.06 per cent of the total geographical area. Hence such routine accrual of the incident of falling bridges in Bihar is more disastrous as the lives of people at large are at stake. Therefore the urgent intervention of this Hon'ble Court is required to save the lives of people, as the under-construction bridges before its accomplishment collapsed routinely.”