Savitri river bridge collapse gives way to IBMS

October 20, 2016

Remnants of the collapsed British-era bridge on the Savitri river

In August this year, a British-era bridge spanning the Savitri river on the Mumbai-Goa highway collapsed. The tragedy occurred in the dead of the night and over ten vehicles were washed away, killing more than 26 people while 30 people were swept away in the swollen river.

In a country where construction collapses are quite the norm, the government is now waking up to the possibility of using modern technology to ensure the safety of bridges and their timely maintenance. Recently, minister of road transport & highways and shipping Nitin Gadkari, launched the Indian Bridge Management System (IBMS) in New Delhi as a inevitable step.

“IBMS is preparing a database of all bridges in the country and detailing their structural condition so that timely action can be taken to repair the structures or build new ones in their place,” said Gadkari.

In early 2015, the government had roped in IDDC Engineers, an infrastructure development firm, to develop this system. Subsequently, a National Bridge Management Centre (NBMC) was also up in Noida within Indian Academy for Highway Engineers (IAHE). According to an official, so far 1,15,000 bridges have been inventorised, of which 85,000 are culverts and the rest are bridges.

According to a ministry official, during the process each bridge is assigned a unique identification number based on the state, RTO zone and whether it is situated on a national highway, state highway or on a district road. The precise location of the bridge in terms of latitude-longitude is collected through GPS and based on this, it is assigned a bridge location number. Thereafter, engineering characteristics like the design, materials, type of bridge, its age, loading, traffic lane, length, width of carriage way are collected to assign a bridge classification number to the structure.

These are then used to do a structural rating of the building on a scale of 0 to 9, and each bridge is assigned a structural rating number. Based on the data gathered, IBMS will identify bridges that need attention. Accordingly, the ministry will enhance its life and prioritise repair and rehabilitation work, said the official.

According to Jaijit Bhattacharya, partner, infrastructure and government services at KPMG India, this platform is a step towards having an alarm system which will alert the authorities before a bridge collapses or needs urgent repair. “There has been a need to put the sensors below the bridges and connect them to an online platform so that these devices (sensors) should trigger the information before a bridge collapse. This initiative is a great shift towards the vision that every bridge will have its own sensor and online database,” he added.

Written by ITW Editor · Filed Under Default

2 Comments on “Savitri river bridge collapse gives way to IBMS” Post your comment

I N Mishra on September 2nd, 2017 4:55 pm

Dear Sir,

It has been declared recently by Highway Minister in Lok Sabha that 100 bridges are in dilapidated conditions & can collapse any time. 1.6 lakhs bridges inventory got made by IBMS & this result came out.
But fact of the matter is our bridges are not so durable &
their life expectancies ate in the 20_40 years average time.
A more than 100 years old bridge in Savitri river collapsed & made news but our bridges have started crumbling.
Like quality deterioration of Engineers, the same is happening with Bridges & Structures.
Enactment of Engineers Bill will solve the problem to an extant or not?
Infrastructure is happening now & will happen till 2050 with considerable pace & Governments have to see this but constructing durable infrastructure is in the hands of budding Engineers.
Let us make it a mission.

Regards,
I N Mishra
7070885052
I N Mishra on September 2nd, 2017 4:57 pm

Shri Pankaj Kumar/Amrit Lal Meena, I,A,S,
MD
Bihar State Road Corporation Ltd,
Patna, Bihar

Dear Sir,

I am sorry to barge in on you like this, but I hv recvd a rather disturbing e-mail from a young and patriotic engineer Sushant Kumar who is currently working on the Ganga River Bank Project in Patna. id e-mail is reproduced below.
If its contents are true then you might need to put a tracer on its contents and bring the culprits to book rather than have the prestige bridge Designed by an inexperienced Engineer (some Mr Rastogi) who apparently is not even a Graduate in Civil Engg – just an AMIE ?? and the complicated construction supervised by some 70 years old retired Govt. Engineer ( Sita Ram Singh)who would never hv seen such a complicated bridge. (I understand the upper age limit for the Supervision Engineer is only 65 !!??).

The bridge under question being a very prestigious and complicated one, the contents of the e-mail (reproduced below) definitely need to be taken seriously – just in case the allegations be true.

Engineers have been recruited having forged experience certificates. Some of the Engineering certificates are such which are not even AICTE approved & bought from University itself so that they can not be caught when Registration nos. are checked.
Full CV making & certificate making factory is running as these are QCBS ( Quality & Cost Based Selection) consultancy contracts in 90:10 ratio. Hence weight age is of CV & supporting Certificates/Documents is most deciding criteria to win such contracts.
In the name of foreign experts, all debarred personnel’s have been recruited, some of whom even I have seen in my assignments. They have simply copied datas & project names of reputed projects & pasted in their CV to make it impressive.

The way Bridge supervision Engineers are recruited having no related & specific expertise, experience, competence, zeal & enthusiasm, vision & integrity, it is most likely that after 20 years half of the bridge constructed after yr. 2000 will become unusable
Although I am not connected with this Bridge but, since my field is Bridges, this engineer Sushant perhaps thought it fit to inform me so that I might convey to you the contents of his e-mail as an alert.
I am attaching some details which deals with these 2 persons specifically for proof of credentials regarding their age & Engineering qualifications. Also proof of maximum age limit as per MORT&H & NHAI is being attached. Pls. get the same.

How such engineers are being mobilized for this project?

Surely, This is very disastrous state of affairs. Bridges thus made are not reliable prone to collapse. This is itself biggest corruptions running in Billions. Please stop this by employing stringent mechanism.

May I suggest that you kindly look into the matter soonest and see if there is any veracity in the reported matter which I find negligible as attached documents itself tells that there is more than what meets between both the eyes.

My regards,

Dr. Virindra K. RAINA
Ph.D.(London),D.I.C.(London),M.I.C.E.(London)C.Eng.(London),P.Eng.(Ontario).
- long term CONSULTANT/Sr.Expert with The UNITED NATIONS & The WORLD BANK
-Professor EMERITUS
-Lifetime-Achievement Awardee