Set aside money to maintain existing infrastructure before funding new projects

New roads, bridges, flyovers, hospitals and school buildings are announced and inaugurated with great fanfare, but money for their upkeep is often an afterthought. Potholes, leaking buildings, broken streetlights and unsafe bridges are frequently the result of skipped maintenance, not bad construction. The 2022 Morbi bridge collapse in Gujarat, which killed more than 130 people, was linked by the investigating team to corroded cables and lapses in the maintenance and repair contract.

The proposal

1. **Maintenance first.** Every infrastructure budget (Union, state and municipal) first sets aside the money needed to maintain and repair what already exists. Only the remainder funds new construction. 2. **Lifetime cost at approval.** A new project is approved only with its expected maintenance cost over its life, and that cost is added to future budgets. 3. **Public asset register with a maintenance calendar.** Each asset (road stretch, bridge, building, water line) is listed with its completion date, the agency responsible, and when inspections, repairs and major overhauls are due (for example, resurfacing after a set number of years). Citizens can see what is overdue. 4. **Track and report.** Agencies publish each year which scheduled maintenance was done, which was missed, and why.

Arguments for

• Preventive maintenance costs far less than rebuilding or emergency repairs.
• Prevents accidents and deaths caused by neglected structures.
• A public calendar lets citizens and the media hold the responsible agency to account.

Arguments against or concerns

• Ring-fencing money reduces flexibility, and fast-growing areas need new infrastructure urgently.
• Building and keeping an accurate asset register for every road and building is a large effort.
• Maintenance funds can still be misused unless work is independently verified.

Questions to discuss

• What share of the budget should be reserved for maintenance?
• Who should inspect and certify that maintenance was actually done?
• Which assets should be tracked first: bridges, highways, hospitals or schools?

Source: The Wire on the Morbi bridge SIT report: thewire.in/government/22-wires-on-morbi-…