The Gujarat governments five-member SIT has submitted its preliminary report in the Morbi bridge accident. Out of 49 cables wires on the bridge, 22 were rusted, according to this investigation report. As a result of an unfortunate bridge collapse, 134 people lost their lives after the century-old bridge fell into the Machchhu River in Morbi, Gujarat.The SIT believes that out of 49 cables, 22 wires must have already broken. When the number of people on the bridge increased, the remaining 27 wires could not take the weight of the people and broke.Morbi bridge accident took place on 30 October 2022. 135 people died in this accident. The SIT team includes IAS Rajkumar Beniwal, IPS Subhash Trivedi, secretary of the state road and building department, an engineer and a professor of structural engineering.The SIT report also notes that prior to starting the repair work, the main cable and vertical suspenders of the bridge were not properly tested. The report claimed that the behaviour of the vehicle had changed as a result of welding the old and new suspensions together during the repair process.“The new deck comprised of honeycomb aluminium sheets which was supported by 4 aluminium channels, in relation to, the old deck that was made of wooden planks and supported by 3 channels. This led to an increase in the weight of the bridge,” the report said, alleging that the company outsourced the repairing work to a “non-competent authority”.Ajanta Manufacturing Limited (Oreva Group) had secured the contract to renovate and repair and operate the bridge on the Machchhu river.In January, a 1262-page charge sheet was filed against Oreva Groups Managing Director (MD) Jaysukh Patel. After the charge sheet was filed he surrendered before the court.The bench further said that any structure which is being used by public should be regularly inspected by authorities.The report further stated that a proper SOP should be followed in this type of case. Also, no restriction was imposed on the number of persons accessing the bridge at a given point in time. There was no restriction in sale of tickets leading to unrestricted movement on the bridge.In addition to that, a few youngsters were seen purposely moving the cable bridge right before the collapse of the bridge in a video, which means that there was insufficient security to prevent the public from damaging the bridge, which was pointed out by the SIT.Any structure which is used by public, for that repair work was carried out without consulting competent technical experts, SIT added in the report.About the Morbi Bridge collapse:The Morbi bridge is currently owned and operated by Morbi Municipality, which signed a contract with the private trust Oreva Group on March 7, 2022. The company has been involved in the group since 2008. The toll bridge reopened for the public on October 26, 2022, after being closed for repairs for six months. On October 30, 2022, five days after the re-opening of the bridge, it collapsed at 6.40 pm in the evening. Reportedly, more than 500 people were there on the bridge at the time of the collapse, far exceeding the capacity of 125. A member of Parliament, Mohan Kundariya also lost twelve family members in this incident. At least, 135 people were confirmed dead and more than 180 were rescued in this incident. The majority of victims were women, the elderly and children, including an 18-month-old baby who died. The Gujarat Government announced an ex gratia payment of Rs 4 lakh to the kin of each person who died and Rs 50,000 to the injured.
