Infrastructure Failures in India: A Crisis of Quality, Governance, and Accountability

Infrastructure is the backbone of a nation’s development, yet India continues to struggle with repeated infrastructure failures, affecting public safety, economic growth, and quality of life. Incidents such as the Mahisagar bridge collapse in Gujarat (2025) and the multiple bridge collapses in Bihar highlight serious concerns around construction quality, poor maintenance, and regulatory oversight. These failures not only result in tragic loss of life but also reflect deeper issues such as corruption, lack of accountability, delayed execution, and compromised safety norms. Hence, addressing infrastructural gaps is not just a developmental need but also a matter of ethical governance, environmental justice, and human dignity.

Through this article, we will be delving into the meaning of infrastructure, its role in the economic growth, reasons for infrastructure failure, why failing infrastructure is a challenge for India, ethical dimensions of infrastructure failure, along with the way forward to make the infrastructure resilient.