We Build Fast. We Build Proud.But Do We Build to Last?

By Sanjai Jalla

India's infrastructure ambition is real- and so is the reckoning waiting beneath its freshly

paved roads and ribbon-cut bridges.

Every collapsed bridge tells two stories. The first is the tragedy you see- the rubble, the

grief, the headlines that last 48 hours. The second is the one we rarely discuss: the quiet

accumulation of compromises made long before the first crack appeared. As someone

who works at the intersection of urban planning and policy, I have spent years watching

India celebrate its infrastructure milestones. What I don't see celebrated is the discipline,

oversight, and institutional honesty that make those milestones mean something

decades from now.

Let me be direct: India does not have an infrastructure problem. It has an infrastructure

integrity problem. And the distinction matters enormously.

The Evidence We Keep Burying:

High-Profile Collapses Are Not Anomalies. They Are Symptoms.

The names and dates pile up with a frequency that should alarm every policymaker,

engineer, and citizen:

March 2016: Vivekanand Flyover Collapse, Kolkata

26 dead when an under-construction flyover buckled in a crowded area. The contractor, awarded the project through the lowest-bid system, had systematically cut corners on materials and safety protocols. An IIT Kharagpur investigation called it a direct consequence of cost-cutting- not an act of God.

May 2018: Varanasi Flyover Collapse

18 lives lost when a large concrete segment of an under-construction flyover fell onto moving traffic below. Investigations pointed to engineering oversight failures and inadequate

site safety management- in one of India's most politically symbolic cities. Between 2018 and 2022 alone, official data indicates over 8,500 people lost their lives

due to the collapse of public infrastructure across India. In 2024, media records suggest

48 bridge collapses- more than the government's official five-year count of 42.

Each failure was followed by a familiar choreography: shock, condolences, an inquiry

committee, a few suspended officials, and then- silence. Until the next one. The System Behind the Failures:

This Is Not About Bad Engineers. It's About Bad Systems.

The most dangerous myth circulating in policy corridors is that these collapses are the

result of individual negligence- a crooked contractor here, a careless site supervisor

there. They are not. They are the predictable output of a system designed, however

unintentionally, to reward speed and optics over safety and longevity.

The lowest-bid culture is perhaps the original sin. Public procurement frameworks in

India are heavily weighted toward L1- the lowest financial bidder. Quality, track record,

and technical capacity are secondary filters at best. Contractors win by cutting costs; the

cuts come from material quality, skilled labour, and curing time. The building stands long

enough for the ribbon-cutting. What happens next is someone else's problem.

Election timelines masquerade as project timelines. Infrastructure projects in India

increasingly operate on a five-year political clock. Inaugurations are campaign assets. A

bridge announced by one administration must be opened by the current one- ready or

not. The political cost of a delayed inauguration is immediate and visible. The structural

cost of a premature one is deferred, diQuse, and- too often- fatal.

Third-party audit mechanisms are weak and easily captured. India's National Building

Code exists. Bureau of Indian Standards specifications exist. What doesn't reliably exist

is an independent, empowered inspectorate with teeth- one that can halt projects,

penalise developers, and isn't subject to informal pressure from project-linked interests.

And then there is corruption- the word we circle around, but rarely say out loud.

Let me say it plainly: it is not a footnote to India's infrastructure problem. It is load-

bearing. The mechanism is well-documented. Contractors submit what are known as

"suicide bids"- abnormally low tenders, never intended to be profitable on paper. Once

the contract is secured, collusive consultants and compliant site supervisors approve

inflated claims, ghost works never executed, and "extra items" invented after the fact.

What begins as a loss recovers into a windfall- with the public exchequer absorbing every

rupee of the gap. This is not a fringe phenomenon. It is a pattern that runs through India's

infrastructure sector with documented consistency.

In Bihar, investigators have found projects where bridges were funded, approved, and

documented- but built so inadequately that they collapsed before inauguration, or not

built at all. Contractor mafias and kickbacks allow politically connected firms to use

substandard materials for higher profits. The CAG has flagged the Bharatmala Pariyojana-

India's flagship highway programme- for irregularities including contractors selected onfalsified documents, work awarded without approved project reports, and the diversion

of over ₹3,598 crore from escrow accounts.

The Dwarka Expressway project cost inflated 14x from its original sanction. This is not

alleged. It is audited and tabled in Parliament.

The Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index 2024 placed India at 96th

out of 180 countries, with a score of 38- stagnant over the last decade. That stagnation is

not accidental. It is the equilibrium point of a system where political patronage,

contractor dependency, and bureaucratic complicity have found a comfortable, self-

sustaining arrangement.

The buildings get built. The money changes hands. The concrete cracks. And everyone

moves on.

"Corruption in India's infrastructure is not a bug in the system. It is a

feature- one that collapses the distance between public investment and

public safety, and fills the gap with private gain."

What the World Has Figured Out:

Global Models That India Can- and Must- Learn From

This is not a uniquely Indian challenge. Every rapidly industrialising country has faced a

version of this reckoning. What separates those that course-corrected from those that

didn't is institutional will- the decision that structural integrity is non-negotiable, even

when it slows things down.

South Korea's example deserves particular attention. The Sampoong Department Store

collapse of 1995. 502 dead, caused by construction violations that inspectors had

flagged and owners had overridden- was a national trauma. But it became a national

turning point (AAPDA MEIN AVSAR- an Indian Context). Seoul didn't just prosecute

individuals; it restructured the entire system of liability, oversight, and professional

accountability. That is what genuine institutional response looks like.

The United States oQers an equally instructive case. After the Silver Bridge over the Ohio

River collapsed in 1967, killing 46 people, the U.S. did not merely investigate. It legislated.

The National Bridge Inspection Standards, enacted in 1971, created a mandatory

inspection cycle for every public highway bridge in the country- over 618,000 structures-

with federal funding withheld from states that fail to comply. More than five decades later,

that programme is considered an international benchmark. The lesson: genuine

accountability needs a financial trigger, not just a moral one.

China, for all its contradictions, mandates by law that every major construction project

employ an independent supervision engineer- a professional whose job is to serve

neither the contractor nor the owner, but the integrity of the structure itself. Firms with

poor safety records are blacklisted from future state contracts, nationally.

India has analogous provisions on paper. The gap is not legislative. It is institutional will.

India has had its Sampoong moments. Morbi should have been one. What we are waiting

for is the turning point that follows. The Path Forward:

We Can Build Fast and Build Right. But Not Without These.

I am not arguing against ambition. India's infrastructure gap is real, its backlog is

generational, and its investment in roads, rail, ports, and urban systems is long overdue.

But the question was never whether to build- it was always whether we build in ways that

honour the public trust embedded in every rupee spent.

Here is what genuine course-correction requires:

1. A National Infrastructure Inspectorate- Independent by Design:

Not a committee under the Ministry of Roads. A constitutionally or statutorily insulated

body, empowered to halt projects, publish findings, and impose penalties- insulated from

the project-awarding ministry. Singapore's BCA is the template.

2. Reform Procurement Away from L1 Dominance:

Introduce quality-and-cost scoring (QCBS) as the mandatory standard for all public

infrastructure tenders above a threshold. A contractor with a collapse history should be

ineligible- not merely inconvenienced.

3. Structural Warranties with Real Teeth:

Mandate defect liability periods- currently nominal on many projects- and back them

with performance bonds that are actually invoked. If a bridge collapses within ten years,

the contractor pays. Not the exchequer.

4. Decouple Inauguration from Certification:

No public infrastructure asset should be inaugurated before receiving independent

structural sign-oQ. Make this a legislative requirement. Politicians who inaugurate

uncertified structures should bear personal liability- not just optics.

5. A National Public Infrastructure Failure Database:

Transparent, searchable, live. Every collapse, every investigation finding, every

contractor sanction- in the public domain. Sunlight is the best disinfectant for a system

that currently relies on short memories.

India's infrastructure story deserves to be one of genuine pride- not just pride in what was built, but in how it was built, and how long it will stand. A nation that builds a hundred highways but buries their failures in inquiry reports is not building its future. It is mortgaging it. We owe citizens more than landmarks. We owe them structures that outlast the governments that built them- and the news cycles that once celebrated them.

The writer is an alumnus of the Faculty of Management Studies (FMS), Delhi, a Strategic Advisor, and an expert in environmental governance, sustainability, and the management of planetary crises.