Editorial Snapshot: 11-July-2025

Bridge too far: On the bridge collapse in Vadodara -A regular audit of all major infrastructure projects is a must 

A span of a 40-year-old bridge in Vadodara in Gujarat caved (1) in, sending half-a-dozen  vehicles into the Mahisagar river below. On Thursday (July 10, 2025), 18 people were  confirmed dead. Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel has ordered an investigation into the cause,  which locals have alleged to be the long-standing neglect (2) by local authorities. On June 15,  2025, an iron pedestrian bridge over the Indrayani river in Pune district collapsed due to  overloading (3), leaving four dead. In May, a concrete slab being hoisted by a crane at the site  of the construction of a bridge over the Kathajodi river in Cuttack fell on workers below, killing  three. Similarly, in 2024, the Ghatkopar hoarding collapse in Mumbai resulted in 17 fatalities.  And in 2023, there were more accidents — a girder failure at an under-construction railway  bridge in Mizoram left 26 workers dead; a rooftop billboard collapse killed two women in  Lucknow; and a pillar collapse at a metro construction site in Bengaluru killed a mother and her toddler. In 2022, the Morbi suspension bridge over the Machchhu river, again in Gujarat, failed, killing more than 140 people. These are only some of the hundreds of incidents involving the  catastrophic (4) failure of public infrastructure. They are accompanied by road accidents and  deadly fires in crowded areas, both of which regularly claim many lives. 

Even if they are isolated (5), they are not entirely accidental: they are symptoms of India’s  ageing infrastructure that is being tested, especially in peri-urban (6) areas, as industrial  growth and urban populations expand. Facilities such as bridges, roads and hospitals that  were designed for some number of users, are progressively giving way under the weight of  more. So also are the departments responsible for their upkeep, many of which remain  underfunded, understaffed or complacent (7). While the authorities have ordered investigations into these incidents, few have yielded failure analysis reports into the public domain. Some  also prompted audits but they were restricted to infrastructure of the same type. Given the  evident ubiquity (8) of the problem, India must modify asset-creating initiatives such as the  Urban Infrastructure Development Fund to have additional priorities and adjust the incentives  of rehabilitative (9) schemes such as the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban  Transformation to help regularly maintain ageing urban assets in all centres, with greater  frequency in those peopled by 10 lakh or more. Second, while baseline audit frameworks for  municipal bridges exist, they must be enforced more uniformly and transparently. Finally, until then, accidents must trigger a probe by a statutory (10) body plus a mandatory audit of all  major infrastructure, and States must endeavour to publish the findings at the earliest.

 

 Widen the net: On Supreme Court and Bihar’s revision of electoral rolls

The Election Commission of India must heed the Supreme Court’s view on including more  accessible documents The Supreme Court of India’s pointed observations on Thursday (July 10, 2025) regarding  Bihar’s ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls are a crucial course  correction for the Election Commission of India (ECI), which it must heed (1) immediately. By  urging the ECI to consider including the Aadhaar, the Elector Photo Identity Card, and the  ration card among the acceptable documents for identity verification, the Court has  acknowledged the critique (2) of the SIR that the 11 documents listed for verification are a  restrictive and unnecessary barrier to voter registration. The Court has nudged (3) the ECI  toward inclusivity in a way that could help resolve the core issues with the SIR. The Court  rightly observed that “the entire exercise of SIR is about identity only”, that none of the 11documents currently listed are “telltale (4) ones for citizenship”, and that they are all meant to  prove identity. It also rightly went on to question why Aadhaar, which is “considered basic for  getting other documents”, is excluded while dependent documents such as caste certificates  are accepted, exposing the inconsistency (5) in the ECI’s position. The ECI’s objection to  

Aadhaar as merely proving residence rather than citizenship reveals a misunderstanding of the  practical realities of Bihar, besides legal precedents (6). For example, data show that while  87% of Bihar’s population have an Aadhaar card, only 45%-50% are matriculates and close to  just 2% have passports. The Court’s earlier judgments remain relevant too, having decisively rejected putting the “onus  of proof of citizenship” on voters already enrolled in previous elections. This precedent  contradicts the SIR’s approach of treating every voter as a potential non-citizen unless proven  otherwise and which risks significant disenfranchisement (7) of electors despite their having  valid identification. While not staying the SIR, the Court also listed the judicial review of the  whole process, including its timing and nature, which “goes to the very roots of our democracy  [and] is about the right to vote”. The Court has reminded the ECI that its mandate, under  Article 324, is to facilitate (8) democratic participation, and not to create obstacles. There has  been enough confusion on the ground following a more liberal reading of the ECI’s SIR rules  on document submission and verification by the Chief Electoral Officer, which was overruled  by the Chief Election Commissioner. With its suggestion on expanding the list of verifiable  documents, the Court has provided the ECI an opportunity to transform the SIR from a  dangerously exclusionary (9) exercise — one that could affect marginalised (10) citizens — into a genuinely inclusive process.

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