NEW DELHI, Feb. 3 -- Newly laid roads develop cracks, portions of under-construction flyovers give way, and bridges collapse within days of inauguration; this has been the woeful story of India's public works, where enormous amounts of money are presumably spent on infrastructural development.

High-level committees constituted to probe such tragedies invariably blame the poor quality of the work carried out, with the agencies awarded the contract for executing the projects facing the heat. But has anyone learned any lessons from such infrastructural disasters? Hardly so.

The collapse of bridges and flyovers is said to have become a routine affair in Bihar, even though it is among the country's most rapidly developing states today. Not t...