The Centre on Tuesday initiated a scheme to ensure proper and timely upkeep of the bridges across the country. To this effect Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari said the Indian Bridge Management System (IBMS) will make a database of these bridge structures to save accidents and loss of lives due to the poor condition and maintenance of bridges.
Gadkari said lack of any database on bridges has led to a situation where it proved maintaining their proper upkeep difficult. “Bridge structures also hamper efficient transport and has also led to accidents. The IBMS aims to fill this gap by preparing a data base 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,” Gadkari said launching the IBMS.
IBMS is the largest platform in the world owned by a single owner, with database that could exceed 1,50,000 bridge structures. So far 1,15,000 bridges have been inventorised, of which 85,000 are culverts and the rest are bridges.
“IBMS is being developed to create an inventory of all bridges in the country and rate their structural condition so that timely repair and rehabilitation work can be carried out based on the criticality of the structure,” he said.
In addition to the structural rating, the bridges are also being assigned Socio-Economic Bridge Rating Number which will decide the importance of the structure in relation to its contribution to daily socio-economic activity of the area.
Thereafter, engineering characteristics like the design, materials, type of bridge, its age, loading, traffic lane, length, width of carriage way etc are collected and are used to assign a Bridge Classification Number to the structure. “Based on inventory data IBMS will analyse data and identify bridges that need attention,” said a MoRTH official.