A chemical tanker that had been hanging precariously from the damaged structure of Gambhira bridge over Mahisagar river has been retrieved, officials said on Wednesday.
A portion of the bridge collapsed on July 9 when two lorries, an SUV, a pickup van and an auto-rickshaw fell into the water after a span of the bridge gave way at Padra. Officials said 22 people, including a man who succumbed to his injuries in a hospital on August 5, died in the incident.
Anand district collector Praveen Chaudhary said Dilip Padhiyar (34), a resident of Borsad taluka of Anand district, died during treatment at the government-run SSG Hospital.
Chaudhary said the tanker has been removed and brought to the road. “Repair work is going on after which it will be handed over to the owner,” he said at the end of an operation conducted by a 50-60-member team from a Porbandar’s Vishwakarma Group.
The complex engineering operation, which had been delayed for over three weeks due to safety concerns around the chemical cargo and the tanker’s precarious position, was retrieved using steel cables, hydraulic jacks, airbags, and roller bags to manoeuvre the vehicle carefully.
The bridge, a 900-metre structure built in 1985, collapsed at 7:30am on July 9. A person who had gone missing in the incident has been presumed dead.
“The 22-year-old man, Vikram Padhiyar’s family, has accepted the compensation announced by the government for the dead. The family had filed a missing person’s complaint at a police station,” said Vadodara district collector Anil Dhameniya.
{{/usCountry}}“The 22-year-old man, Vikram Padhiyar’s family, has accepted the compensation announced by the government for the dead. The family had filed a missing person’s complaint at a police station,” said Vadodara district collector Anil Dhameniya.
{{/usCountry}}“Based on a government resolution, a district committee can decide in case of a disaster if a person is missing, and if the authorities feel he may not have survived, there is a provision to pay compensation to the kin of the deceased.”
Collector Chaudhary said the authorities have asked the bank to give the truck owner three extra months to pay instalments for the vehicle in view of the incident.
The bridge was a crucial link between Vadodara and Anand districts, and vehicles now have to take a 50-kilometre detour via Vasad to travel between the two districts.
The bridge served as an important connection between Central Gujarat and Saurashtra, commonly used by vehicles to bypass tolls on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad highway.
On July 13, the Gujarat government awarded a ₹212 crore contract to construct a new two-lane, 900-metre bridge, parallel to the collapsed structure, with an 18-month completion timeline.
Four Roads and Buildings department engineers were also suspended on July 10 and a probe was ordered by Gujarat chief minister Bhupendra Patel into the collapse.