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Rescue operations in Gujarat’s Morbi called off days after bridge collapse
Rescue operations in Gujarat’s Morbi district were called off on Thursday night, five days after a 143-year-old suspension bridge collapsed into the Machchu river claiming at least 135 lives, a senior official from the state administration said, adding that no more victims were reported missing.
Rescue operations in Gujarat’s Morbi district were called off on Thursday night, five days after a 143-year-old suspension bridge collapsed into the Machchu river claiming at least 135 lives, a senior official from the state administration said, adding that no more victims were reported missing.
Announcing the end of the ongoing search operation, launched on Sunday evening soon after the suspension bridge came crashing down, Gujarat commissioner of relief Harshad Patel said: “After verifying the information brought to the district administration, there is nobody else who is missing, and no chance of recovering any more bodies. Taking that into factor and after discussions with state and central agencies, we have called off rescue operations.”
The rescue operations involving multiple agencies, including Indian Army, Navy, national and state disaster response forces and personnel from various departments of Gujarat, were called off at 8 pm on Thursday, said an official release.
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As a precautionary measure, however, one team each of the local fire brigade, the state disaster response force and the national disaster response force will remain stationed at the accident site until further orders, said the release.
The Gujarat police have arrested nine people in connection with the tragic incident. The police on Tuesday informed a local court that the Oreva group, which signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in March 2022 to renovate and operate the bridge, and Dev Prakash Fabrications, to which the repair work was subcontracted to, did not have the expertise or qualification to carry out the work. Of the nine arrested so far, Deepakbhai Parekh and Dineshbhai Dave are managers of the Oreva group, while Prakashbhai Parmar and Devangbhai Parmar are from Dev Parakash Fabrications. The other five arrested are ticket sellers and security guards deputed at the British-era suspension bridge.
Meanwhile, a police team headed by investigating officer PN Zala on Monday visited the house of Prakashbhai Parmar in Surendernagar district – about 100 km from Morbi – and seized some documents. It came a day after the same police team questioned Morbi municipality’s chief officer Sandipsigh Zala for four hours on details of the agreement reached between the government body and Oreva, a senior officer said, requesting anonymity.
Amid mounting criticism of the administration’s inability to question Jaysukhbhai Patel, the managing director of Oreva group who inaugurated the re-opening of the bridge on October 26, senior police officers said they have not been able to track him down.
KR Chauhan, in-charge of Morbi police’s crime branch, said Patel’s responsibility has not been fixed yet. “But I can say for sure that he is out of reach,” he told HT on Thursday.
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Patel is not an accused in the FIR registered by the Gujarat Police.
When HT tried to contact Patel for a comment on Thursday, his mobile phone was switched off.
Chauhan said that summons to Patel would be issued after getting a clarity on the chain of events and also going through the documents collected from the office of the Oreva group in Morbi on Thursday. “This process will include an analysis of the FSL report that we expect to receive in the next three-four days,” he said.
A technical team from Gujarat’s engineering department has also sent samples from the bridge to the state FSL centre in Gandhinagar, officials said.
Investigations have also revealed that 2,000 tickets were sold on the day of the mishap.
Morbi superintendent of police Rahul Tripathi on Wednesday told HT that “overcrowding and overloading” was one of the reasons for the tragedy.
“In the last two hours before the collapse, around 400 tickets were sold. We will only know the ideal capacity of the bridge once we receive scientific findings,” Chauhan said.
