Morbi bridge was proposed to reopen after temporary repairs in 2020: documents

The bridge, which underwent multiple repairs, collapsed on Sunday in Gujarat’s Morbi and left at least 135 people dead

Published on: Nov 3, 2022, 13:04:35 IST

By Maulik Pathak

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The bridge, which collapsed on Sunday in Gujarat’s Morbi and left at least 135 people dead, underwent multiple repairs, and the Oreva Group that renovated it at one point considered reopening it after temporary repairs in 2020, according to documents HT has seen.

Rescuers in boats search the Machchu river next to the bridge that collapsed in Morbi. (AP)

The group wrote to the Morbi collector in August 2020 saying that they will open the “temporarily repaired” bridge if their contract is not renewed and they were not awarded a permanent one for its maintenance and management. HT has seen a copy of the letter.

An official said the government needs to follow a procedure to take such decisions. The bridge has mostly remained open for the public except when restrictions were imposed on gatherings during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“When it was opened in the pre-Covid-19 period, the number of visitors per day did not exceed over 100. This was for the first time [on Sunday] that so many people gathered on the bridge,” said a Morbi municipality official, requesting anonymity.

Girish Saraiya, a former Morbi municipality chief officer, said the contract for maintenance, repair, and security of the bridge, which suffered some damages in the 2001 earthquake, was given to Ajanta Group.

“It was repaired by the Oreva Group and opened to the public for 10 years in 2008. Their term ended in 2018 after which they needed to raise the ticket prices [for using the bridge] to recover the costs required for renovation and repair of the bridge. The municipality turned down their request for the price increase. Also due to Covid-19 restrictions, the bridge could not be opened to the public for almost two years.”

The municipal body was negotiating with Oreva on the permanent agreement, which was finally signed in February 2022.

Saraiya said Oreva Group submitted its proposal again for renovation and reopening of the bridge. He added they did not have a copy of the contract letter. Saraiya said the Oreva Group said it was also unable to find it when asked for it.

“I think they submitted their agreement copy of 2008 to the Rajkot collector office. We asked them for their terms and condition for the operations and management of the bridge. This was sometime in January this year. The bridge needed repairs given it was a very old bridge,” said Saraiya, who was transferred in February, over a month before the agreement was signed between the Morbi municipality and Oreva.

A court in Morbi on Tuesday remanded four of the nine people arrested after the collapse into police custody. They include Oreva’s managers Dipak Parekh and Dinesh Dave and contractors Prakash Parmar and Devang Parmar. On Monday, the nine were booked under the Indian Penal Code (IPC)’s Section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder).

Public prosecutor H S Panchal on Wednesday said the contractors, who carried out the repairs, were not qualified to carry out such work. He added the nine arrested accused were slapped with fresh charges under IPC’s Sections 336 and 337 for endangering life and personal safety.

Panchal cited a Forensic Science Laboratory report and told a local court on Tuesday that experts believed that the main cable of the bridge snapped because of the weight of the new flooring.

One of the lawyers defending an accused argued in the court that the collapse was an “act of God”.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Maulik Pathak
He is an Ahmedabad-based journalist with more than two decades of experience. His career spans business journalism and general news, with reporting across politics, crime, governance, public policy, business, industry, infrastructure, energy, ports, aviation, the environment, wildlife and social issues. He began his career in feature writing before moving into business journalism, reporting on companies and sectors including energy, infrastructure, pharmaceuticals, automobiles and real estate. Over the years, his work expanded to politics, courts, crime, public policy, civic affairs, the environment and wildlife. His reporting has taken him from government offices and courtrooms to factory floors, ports, forests and remote villages, covering stories that range from industrial investments and financial markets to elections, conservation and issues affecting everyday life. While many assignments demand the pace of the daily news cycle, others require sustained reporting over months and years to follow developments beyond the headlines. He started his journalism career with the Asian Age in Ahmedabad in 2002 as a feature writer and sub-editor. Since 2022, he has been working with Hindustan Times. Earlier, he worked with Business Standard, DNA, The Economic Times, Mint and The Times of India. His longest stint was with Mint, where he spent more than eight years reporting across multiple beats. During his career, he has worked in both reporting and editing roles, contributing to page planning, local editions and special editorial projects as newsrooms evolved from print-first operations to digital publishing. Early in his career, he also worked on media and documentary projects with an NGO and as a copywriter at a communications agency before returning to journalism. Away from work, he sometimes makes time for a pair of binoculars, table tennis, cinema and the occasional poem.Read More

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