11 Gay brothers and sisters died painful in the arms of a few family member next to them, while 50 Unspecified of their fathers 50 family member died immediately and were washed away in the Mahisagar (Mahi) river Gujarat: On 9 July 2025, An Unexpected Accident Happened in the All Roads and Highways in Anand and Vadodara District when a bridge called Gambhira Bridge fell off in the Mahisagar River. The crash killed nine and injured many more, sparking shock, grief and immediate demands for infrastructure accountability from across the state and the nation.
The bridge collapse is not just a human tragedy but a failure of critical infrastructure, one that underscores systemic deficiencies in maintenance, oversight and public safety in India.
🚨 The Incident: What Happened?
At about 7:30am, during the peak of the weekday morning rush, a portion of the Gambhira-Mujpur bridge collapsed without warning. Eyewitnesses said a loud cracking noise was heard just before the bridge fell. The disaster had involved at least five vehicles, including two trucks, a sport utility vehicle, a passenger van and an auto rickshaw tumbling directly into the river below.
Horror-struck local residents and people travelling early watched as the vehicles were swallowed up into the murky water. The possibility of a human chain to reach out to the rescued people was being discussed, but it did not materialise with the concerned district administration and VMCS reaction team camping at the spot.
Within hours, nine bodies had been pulled from the wreckage, and six people were rescued alive, several of them in critical condition and taken to local hospitals.
A Bridge Under Pressure: Age and Neglect A previous version of this article misstated the number of times the Tappan Zee Bridge was mentioned in a report by the New York State Thruway Authority.
Initial reports say that the Gambhira bridge was about 40 years old and built at a time when Gujarat was experiencing major industrial growth. Unfortunately, like many of these structures throughout India, the bridge may have endured decades of wear and tear without substantial modernization or oversight.
Residents had complained about the state of the bridge for years, news outlets reported. Others said they observed visible cracks and rusting iron reinforcements, as well as loose railings. Because of its flimsy construction and lack of railings, it had become a regular site for accidents and even suicide attempts.
The official cause has yet to be established, but initial scrutiny is focusing on structural fatigue compounded by overweight heavy vehicles, seasonal rains and lack of maintenance.
📍 Connectivity Hit: Anand – Vadodara Corridor Cut off
Gambhira Bridge proved to be a lifeline for both Anand (origin) and Vadodara destinations of Gujarat. The road it propped up was a vital link in goods trade, in agricultural supply chains and for daily commuters between the industrial heartlands and rural hinterlands.
Connectivity is entirely severed with the fall. The authorities have had to make emergency diversions and run the traffic queues through smaller and more poorly equipped rural roads. This has caused long traffic snarls, delay in transport and hardship to lakhs of commuters.
Logistics and business operations in the region have also suffered, especially for the small traders and transporters who rely on the route day in and day out.
🗣️ Political and Public Response
As word of the collapse spread, outrage spread. Deeply saddened by the loss, Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel promised prompt action. He ordered an immediate investigation on the cause of the collapse and asked statewide infrastructure departments to conduct emergency safety audits of other bridges and public structures in Gujarat.
He further announced compensation of ₹2 lakh each to the kin of the deceased and ₹50,000 to the injured.
“The ruling government never gives importance to public infrastructure safety,” alleged the opposition parties – Congress and the AAP. Congress MLA Amit Chavda raised questions on structural audits of old bridges and claimed that reallocations and underutilisation of budgetary provisions for maintenance of infrastructure had taken place.
Social media was inundated with videos and eyewitness accounts of the tragedy, prompting national conversation on India’s outdated infrastructure and its failure to govern with caution.
🔍 What Went Wrong? Preliminary Observations
Even as a comprehensive forensic audit of the collapse is underway, experts and civil engineers have raised several red flags:
Aging and neglect: A 40-year-old bridge would have had numerous safety checks and structural reinforcements. It seems that did not occur.
Load management breakdown: Overloaded trucks using the bridge may have surpassed its carrying capability.
Lower quality construction materials: Investigations may be able to determine if lower quality construction material was used during the original bridge construction or in subsequent small repairs.
Insufficient real-time monitoring: Today, many modern bridges outside the country have been equipped with sensors that can sense cracks, vibrations, or strain. There was no such arrangement on Gambhira bridge.
Not an Isolated Incident: A National Issue
Sadly, this is not an isolated case. India has witnessed several deadly bridge collapses in recent years:
- Morbi Bridge Collapse (Gujarat, 2022): Claimed 141 lives.
- Kolkata Majerhat Bridge Collapse (2018): Killed three and injured 25.
- Mumbai CST Foot Overbridge Collapse (2019): Left six dead.
More than 2,000 bridge failures in India have been reported since 1977, according to government data. The pattern is tragically clear; old infrastructure, lax rules, neglect and bureaucratic indifference mean innocent people continue to be threatened with death.
🛠️ What Needs to Change?
This tragedy has to be a turning point. Experts and citizens are demanding the following reforms:
Mandatory Bridge Audits
Any public bridge more than 20 years old would be required to have an annual structural health analysis, with a publicly released report and a schedule for any necessary repairs.
Public Infrastructure Budget Transparency
Governments have to be transparent about how money set aside for maintaining roads and bridges is being spent — and serve it before it gets cold.
Deployment of Real-Time Monitoring Technology
Bridges must have the latest type of sensors able to send warnings remotely to prevent a failure.
Third-Party Inspection Mandate
Audits and maintenance checks should not be done by government departments alone. They need to bring in certified third-party organizations to avoid conflicts of interest.
Criminal Accountability
Reasonable accountability will require contractors, engineers and officials to be criminally responsible if negligence is found on their part — such should be the punishment and not mere suspension or transfer.
💬 Final Thoughts
The collapse of the Gambhira bridge, the snuffing out of nine innocent lives, is a bitter, brutal, reminder: Infrastructure is more than just steel and concrete; it’s about human trust. When that trust crumbles, so does public faith in governance.
As death toll mounts, families shattered by irreparable losses and Gujarat mourns its dead, it becomes the solemn obligation of the state and central governments to see that such tragedies do not recur.
The price of inaction on infrastructure is not just financial — it is also in human lives.
Let us hope this tragic event is the last of its kind — not just one more footnote to India’s long history of preventable disasters.
