The Majerhat Bridge collapse in Kolkata is yet another example of the corrupt nexus between politicians and contractors across the nation.
The images are horrific – mangled bodies, legs poking out from under the beams, a hand reaching out for water through a gap, making us wonder if the person will survive. With the Metro construction taking place just within metres of it, we must ask a crucial question here – was there any study done to check if the construction of the Metro pillars would destabilise the bridge?
So why did it collapse? Why have not one, but two flyovers in the same city collapsed within years of each other and now a bridge? Who do we blame – TMC? The communists? The contractor?
How about the tendering process?
The truth is India’s most common problem: corruption, at every level. It is an open secret that in India, tenders for public works are a cash cow for all concerned. A large project like this can (and has) been dragged on for years, with rocketing costs, huge delays and everyone being unconcerned about the distress that such large and incomplete construction sites cause to the public. And yet, this is all part of a grand design.
How the money is made
The tender for a contract of this magnitude will at least need the ‘blessing’ of a state level minister, at least. In order for a company to get the tender, the minister will have to be paid around 30% of the value of the contract, only then will the tendering system be rigged in favour of the company. Next come the MLAs, the MPs, then the ward councillor(s), the city officials, the PWD, the police (I once saw a Kolkata police constable taking Rs 100 from a contractor who had dumped sand!) and, sometimes, even the locals – many vocal and unscrupulous members of the public threaten to lodge complaints about the mess caused by the ongoing works, or work which isn’t being carried out properly, unless they are paid off. In total, a bidder must be prepared to fork out anywhere up to 50% of the value of the tender.
Then, how can they possibly do the job?
Well, they can’t. Which is why our infrastructure is so shoddy. It would be a mistake to think our politicians and all those within the government – across the spectrum too, from the IAS to the army – would want good infrastructure. After all, if roads were good and lasted years, they wouldn’t have their source of income! Constant ‘repairing’ of roads often translates to a means a steady income for these officials.
The contractor is often left in a mess, for which he has a solution, or a number of solutions. First, he will delay the work. By doing so, he will cash in on the rising cost of raw materials – for example, if the tender has paid him for sand at Rs 20 per kg, the contractor will extend the work till the price goes up to Rs 25 per kg, even though he has already bought the required materials at a lower rate. More often than not, these are bought on the black market, therefore making them sub-standard quality material.
After having bought sub-standard materials, he will now dilute them further – where he, for example, should add three bags of cement to a tonne of sand, he will add two (saving the leftovers for his next job, thus increasing his profit on that job too). This will further decrease the quality of workmanship, his second way of not only recovering the lost money, but also ensuring he makes a profit.
Now the completed work is twice as poor as it should be, far below the specifications laid out in the tender documents, which means it will need repairing, so smaller tenders come out – more pieces of the pie – more chances to make money, and so the cycle continues. No one asks the contractor to guarantee their work, now you know why!
Some will outrage, saying the system needs to change, but who will change it? The state level MLAs and ministers who are all getting a piece of the cake? The MPs and ministers in Delhi who get pieces of cake from the respective states as well as central government tenders?
In the final analysis, there is only one person to blame: you. You for being laid back, you for knowing and doing nothing, you for being party to evil by remaining silent in it’s presence. The blood of those who lie below the flyover stain your hands.
Anthony Khatchaturian works as a historian and opinion writer, and has spent ten years with the Metropolitan Police Service (Scotland Yard), London. He is based in London and Kolkata.