'Nobody Listened. The Bridge Collapsed'

'Who will answer for these lives crushed under their neglect?'

lakhan Darbar, a fiery young social activist and president of the Yuva Sena and youth president Karani Sena, Gujarat, is angry, desperate, hopeless and hopeful at the same time.

Since 2022, he had grimly prophesied that the Mujpur -- also known as Gambhira -- bridge could 'collapse any day, any moment, and bury innocent lives under it'. His prophecy became truth on July 9, 2025, when the dilapidated bridge collapsed claiming 18 lives at last count.

As he surveys the devastation, Darbar's words echo not just with grief but with searing frustration at a state whose staggering apathy has cost far more than just concrete and steel -- it has stolen lives.

"This bridge was going to collapse. Since 2022 I have been repeatedly screaming, 'The Gambhira bridge won't last long. People's lives could be lost.'"

Lakhan first started sounding the alarm in 2022, after noticing alarming cracks and dangerously weakened pillars on the bridge.

"I warned them again and again (external link). 'It could collapse anytime and cause loss of life and property.' But whose ears did it reach? No one's," he rues.

'We didn't just shout. We stood on that shaking bridge and dared them to come (external link)'

Determined not to let bureaucratic deafness kill people, Lakhan and his team took the fight to the bridge itself.

"We held protests right there on that bridge," he recalls. "With our team, we went live from the spot, showing everyone how terribly hopeless this bridge's condition was. We kept telling them -- 'Brother, repair this immediately!' But no one paid attention."

It wasn't just fear-mongering.

"With every vehicle that passed, the bridge would vibrate dangerously. Anyone could see how badly the pillars were damaged. The whole structure was shaking -- but still nobody cared."

Lakhan's frustration became open challenge.

"I told them -- the roads and buildings minister, the state highway maintenance officials, the Gujarat government officers -- come, just come and stand on this bridge for even a minute. Forget about an hour. See with your own eyes how dilapidated it's become."

Click to find out the Organisational Hierarchy (external link) of the Roads and Buildings Department, Government of Gujarat.

'Even the tests failed. Still, they refused to fix it'

Perhaps the most damning revelation comes from Lakhan's claim that even official inspections had confirmed his fears.

"I'm saying it clearly -- even the highway officials admitted that the test results on this bridge's safety had come negative. And still, nobody wanted to take corrective action. What more evidence did they need?"

He keeps expressing his remorse over this utter lack of sensitivity with disbelief.

"So I kept asking them -- if the bridge collapses and there's large-scale loss of life and property, who will be held accountable? Who will answer then?"

'Still, they did nothing'

Lakhan rejects any notion that he merely staged protests without trying due process.

"In 2022 itself, we demanded accountability. We went to the Vadodara collector's office in 2022 and 2023 also. The collector forwarded a letter to the roads and building department saying, 'Take action on these representations.' The collector's office gave clear directions. And then? The (roads and building) department did absolutely nothing."

Gujarat's roads and buildings department -- was under the same leadership then and now. The R&B ministry was under Chief Minister Bhupendrabhai Patel in 2022, and it's under him even today.

If you open this link and go to 'EXISTING BRIDGES' (external link), the drop down list will give the number of all the major and minor bridges and causeways and cross drainage work that the R&B ministry has jurisdiction over.

Currently, the ministry has 1,596 major bridges, 5,589 minor bridges, and 105,830 causeways and cross drainage work under its jurisdiction.

"Whoever held jurisdiction over that bridge, whichever officer was supposed to supervise and take action to prevent such loss of life must be held responsible for manav vadh (human killing) and must be held accountable?"

'I have filed a police complaint. Want an FIR against anybody and everybody who is responsible for this tragedy'

When paperwork failed and as unfortunate as it might have been, the bridge collapsed, Lakhan turned to the local police after the bridge's collapse.

"Just last evening (of July 9, the day when the Gambhira bridge collapsed), I went to the Padra police station and filed a complaint. I didn't name any person or minister. But I'm clear in my mind -- whoever is guilty, must face action. Whoever is responsible must be held accountable. Because this is about people's lives."

'We raised it in the Panchayat. We took it to the Assembly'

Lakhan's colleague, Arshati Parmar, raised the issue in the local district panchayat multiple times.

"And then through Congress MLA from Anand Amitbhai Chavda the question was also raised in the assembly. he also wrote a letter to the chief minister about the precarious condition of the bridge and that it can collapse anytime. We tried every level -- Collector, Panchayat, MLA, Assembly, Opposition, ruling party. Still, the bridge fell."

"But then nobody listens to the issues raised by the Opposition," he explains when asked why the Congress MLA could not bring any relief on this issue.

'In every media interview, I kept warning. We all failed'

Lakhan is painfully candid.

"in interviews, after every media interview (external link; in this video Lakhan keeps repeating how dangerous this bridge has been and how nobody from the local administration paid no heed to his repeated requests to take cognisance of the bridge's poor condition), I kept warning all the state government officials who mattered -- the district collector, MLAs, and everybody whose duty it was to save lives and whose duty it was to close the bridge or carry out repairs."

"But today I feel very sorry and sad that nobody, including myself, followed it up as aggressively as we should have. Maybe if we had pushed harder, precious lives could have been saved."

'This is not just about the 15 who died. This is about a government that didn't care'

As rescue teams pull bodies from the wreckage, Lakhan insists this tragedy is bigger than one bridge or one district.

"This story is not just about the deaths of 16 Gujaratis. It's about the apathy and insensitivity of the state government, the minister, and the officials in charge of maintaining and repairing this bridge -- and many other bridges across Gujarat that desperately need urgent attention."

"Now they want to talk about maintenance. We kept saying it could collapse any day."

"Now they all want to talk about inspections, monitoring, maintenance. But since 2022, we've been saying -- this bridge could collapse any day, any time, any moment. That people would die. Why didn't anyone listen then?"

'People will have to be more aggressive, more vocal'

"I am personally very aggrieved because now that so many people have died I have started feeling that I should have been more aggressive with my agitations and presentations," he says.

"My team and I were sure that the bridge is going to collapse any day. We should have put it more aggressively"

Even as he keeps self-flagellating himself for not following up the issue more aggressively, Lakhan's message shifts from accusation to a quiet, urgent plea.

"The problem is also with people. We need to wake up. People will need to be more alert, more conscious, more vocal about such issues. They must demand accountability aggressively. Because whoever is responsible -- whether it's a minister or an officer -- they must be held accountable. Those lives could have been saved."

Lakhan claims that the local administration is so insensitive that they closed another bridge some 8 km from Gambhira, called Umetha bridge on Ma Mahisagar river that connects Vadodara and Anand -- which is also as unsafe as the Gambhira bridge, and on which traffic plied even after the Gambhira bridge collapsed -- only after this bridge collapsed.

"In one of my Facebook Live two-three years ago I had also brought to the attention of the local administration how unsafe the Umetha bridge was. But they are so insensitive and callous that they didn't close it after my repeated requests and presentation but only closed it after 16 people died due to Gambhira bridge collapse."

"Why were you waiting for people to die to close the other (Umetha) bridge?", asks Lakhan.

"There are five more bridges in and around these districts which also need urgent attention. Let's see what the government does now," says he.

As for his police complaint at Padra police station (external link), Lakhan says that he wanted to file an FIR against the local administration officials but the cops only took a note of his complaint and an FIR was not registered.

"I have warned them that if an FIR is not registered in the next two days we will launch an aggressive agitation. I will also be going to the Gujarat high court."

Photographs curated by Manisha Kotian/Rediff