Morbi tragedy death toll hits 134

The number of dead in Gujarat’s Morbi district climbed to 134 on Monday, a day after a pedestrian bridge collapsed over the river Machchu, plunging a still unknown number of weekend revellers who had gathered on it into the waters below.

The number of dead in Gujarat’s Morbi district climbed to 134 on Monday, a day after a pedestrian bridge collapsed over the river Machchu, plunging a still unknown number of weekend revellers who had gathered on it into the waters below.

Rescuers on boats search in the Machchu river next to a cable suspension bridge that collapsed in Morbi, Gujarat, India, on Monday, Oct. 31, 2022. (AP)

Among the dead were 45 children. As rescuers fished out more bodies, a palpable sense of grief in the town gave way to growing questions, including around how a company more famous for making watches and clocks than civil engineering was given a contract to renovate the bridge, and why the first cache of arrests seemingly included junior workers with little sign of the local administration being probed.

“As of now, 134 is the number of dead. We do not for sure know if there are more people missing and if we are intimated such, we will resume rescue operations tomorrow,” said Ashok Kumar Yadav, the inspector general of police (IGP), during a press conference at 7pm, almost 24 hours after what was popularly known as the “hanging bridge”, or “jhulta pul” in Hindi, snapped.

Police officers earlier said nine people were arrested and a first investigation report (FIR) with allegations of causing death by negligence among other charges had been filed. Among the arrests were of two employees of the Oreva group, which renovated the colonial-era bridge and opened it on October 26, and several others, including security personnel who were meant to have managed the crowd.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi also chaired a high-level meeting in Gandhinagar late on Monday evening, and earlier in the day said that the incident “left him with pain he had rarely experienced in life”.

“On one side is a heart full of hurt and on the other there is the path of duty and work. I offer my condolences to the families of the people that have lost their lives. In this hour of tragedy, the government is with them. The Gujarat government has been engrossed in relief and rescue from last evening itself with all its strength. From the Union government, the state is being given all help. In the rescue, teams from the NDRF have been deployed, and teams from the Army and the Air Force are in operation,” Modi said.

Chief minister Bhupendra Patel and other members of his cabinet spent the day in Morbi overseeing the difficult relief and rescue operations that was on since the bridge collapsed at 6:42pm on Sunday night.

To be sure, the first responders were locals who dived in to help the victims and pull them to safety despite the low visibility and the muddy waters.

The Rajkot district police chief Yadav said that preliminary investigations showed structural and technical flaws, including faulty certification and maintenance issues responsible for the mishap. The FIR, which HT has seen, says that the bridge was opened on October 26 and there were between 250 and 300 people present on the bridge at the time. Several eyewitness accounts though have put this number higher — between 400 and 500.

The FIR says that the suspension bridge may have broken because of a “mechanical failure” or the lack of proper repair and management without quality checks, and is a result of serious negligence and carelessness. “The persons/agencies carrying out repair and management of the bridge have not properly maintained and quality checked the bridge with due care despite the possibility of death and bodily harm to tourists,” the FIR states.

Yadav, the IGP, said that so far, nine people have been arrested, including Deepak Bhai Naveen Chandra Bhai Parekh and Dineshbhai Mandshukhbhai Dave, both managers at Oreva. Two others arrested, Mandsukhbhai Topia and Madarbhai Solanki are ticket clerks, while Prakash Parmar and Devang Parmar were the contractors involved in the repairing of the bridge. Three others have also been arrested, and were characterised as being held for negligence, and part of the security team.

Pressed on whether the senior management of Oreva group, including managing director Jaysukhbhai Patel, who had inaugurated the bridge on October 26, would face criminal action, Yadav said: “Today is the second day of the investigation, more accused will be named in due course. Nobody will be spared.”

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) rivals slammed the party for its response to the tragedy.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge sought an investigation by a retired Supreme Court or high court judge. “An inquiry headed by a retired Supreme Court or high court judge should be done as to how the bridge collapsed five to six days after it was inaugurated and who allowed so many people there,” he said.

Trinamool Congress general secretary Kunal Ghosh accused the Gujarat government of trying to fudge the toll but a section of the media revealed the truth. “The BJP sends fact-finding teams whenever an untoward incident takes place. Let it send a fact-finding team to Morbi. Let it say why the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED) should not probe the Morbi incident,” he said.

The Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) Gujarat chief Gopal Italia tweeted: “What could be worse than this? When the DM of Morbi district himself refused to give this bridge to a private company, a call came from a big leader from Gandhinagar and then the corporation handed over the bridge to the private company.”

The suspension bridge over the river Machchu was built by the ruler of the princely state of Morbi, Sir Waghji Thakor, in 1877. The district administration website says it was made to reflect the “progressive and scientific nature of the rulers of Morbi”. It was inaugurated by then governor of Mumbai, Richard Temple, on February 20, 1879. 1.25 metres wide and spanning 233 metres (roughly 765 feet), it connects the Darbargarh Palace to the Lakhdhirji engineering college.

On March 5, an MOU was signed between the Morbi municipal council and a private firm, Ajanta Manufacturing Private Limited, under the aegis of the Oreva Group, for the operation and maintenance of the bridge for a period of 15 years. The agreement said that all expenses for renovating and commissioning the suspension bridge will be borne by the private firm which was responsible for “proper renovation”.

Closed since March, it was reopened to the public on October 26 on the occasion of the Gujarati new year. The Morbi municipality said on Sunday that the bridge was opened without a necessary “fitness certificate”, and there are allegations of rampant overcrowding once it opened.

HT has made repeated attempts to contact Jaysukhbhai Patel, the managing director of Oreva group, which went unanswered and no public statement has been issued by the company. But Patel had told reporters in Morbi on October 26, the day the bridge was opened, that the budget for the project was ₹2 crore, and they had done a “100 percent renovation”.

“The bridge was made at a time when there was not much technological innovation. Only planks and wooden beams were used… The renovation that we have done with technical innovations should last 8 to 10 years. We will be keeping the bridge open till 6:30pm but a lot of people have asked for it to be open till later,” Patel said.