MoRTH Completes First Safety Audit Of 1.6 Lakh Bridges, Declares 147 As Dilapidated

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has completed a safety audit of 1.6 lakh bridges across the country and declared 147 of them as ‘dilapidated’. The audit was conducted under the Integrated Bridge Management System (IBMS), a Rs 300 crore mapping platform for the country’s bridges that was launched in 2016. Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari said that modern technology such as sensors, radars and drones would be used to create the country’s first mapping system for bridges, many of which were built by the British and on the verge of collapse.

The data collected includes a structural rating, a socio-economic bridge rating which is determined by how much the bridge is used and the people who use it. Each bridge is given a unique identifier – the national identification number, and whether it is part of a district road, state highway or national highway. The location of the bridge is registered using GPS, after which its features such as width, lane configuration, length, age, load-bearing capacity, and others are collated.