An annual safety audit of such structures is necessary, but the same is rare in the country and J&K, in that case, is no exception. Here we just witness the construction and what happens after that, is known to no one. It is left at the mercy of the unknown. So far, God has saved this place from such incidents, but that is no guarantee that it won’t happen. In this direction, the Gujarat incident must wake the concerned authorities up from the deep slumber they are in, concerning the safety and security of suspension bridges that we have in the Union Territory—and the same must be done elsewhere because human lives cannot be put at risk, not at any cost, be it J&K or any other place.
In J&K, we also have several ropeways such as in Gulmarg, Vaishno Devi, and very near, here in Srinagar, we have a ropeway which takes the people to the Makhdoom Sahab’s Shrine—situated at a certain height—over the graveyard known as Malkha. Several safety concerns were flagged earlier there, however, no audit, whatsoever, was conducted to date to ensure that the ropeway was safe. The authorities have not been inclined to a safety audit, putting the lives of the people at great risk.
The need of the hour is to order an immediate safety audit of all the suspension bridges in J&K, with more focus on rural areas, as well as the cable cars to make sure what is being used for the facilitation of the people does not end up killing them—something that we have already seen in Gujarat. It is the administration’s responsibility to safeguard people’s lives and make it a point that lessons are learned from the Morbi bridge collapse incident without delay. At the same time, suspension bridges and ropeways that might end up being flagged as unsafe by the auditors must result in strict action against those involved. There is a need to understand the importance of human lives and it is better to act early instead of being unable to do anything when the damage is done. Better act now!
