Why did the Morbi bridge accident happen? Big reason came out in SIT investigation.

Ahmedabad: A special investigation team constituted by the Gujarat government has found in its preliminary probe that rusting of about half the cables and welding of old suspenders with new ones were some of the major flaws that led to the collapse of the Morbi suspension bridge last year. The accident happened. 135 people died in this accident. These findings are part of the ‘Preliminary Report on Morbi Bridge Tragedy’ submitted by the five-member SIT in December 2022. The report was recently shared by the State Urban Development Department with Morbi Municipality.

This painful accident happened on October 30 last year

Ajanta Manufacturing Limited (Oreva Group) was responsible for the operation and maintenance of the British-era bridge over the Machhu River. The bridge had collapsed on October 30 last year. The SIT has found several lapses in the repair, maintenance and operation of the bridge. IAS officer Rajkumar Beniwal, IPS officer Subhash Trivedi, a secretary and chief engineer of the state road and building department and a professor of structural engineering were the members of the SIT. The SIT found that one of the two main cables of the bridge over the Machhu river, built by the then rulers in 1887, had corrosion problems and that almost half of its wires may have been ‘broken before’ the cable snap on the evening of October 30. ‘ Be.

The bridge was closed in March 2022

According to the SIT, the main cable upstream of the river broke, leading to the accident. The SIT also found that during renovation, “the old suspenders (steel rods that connect cables to the platform deck) were welded with new suspenders”. So the behavior of suspenders changed. Such type of bridges should have single rod suspenders to carry the load.” Significantly, the Morbi Municipality had awarded the contract for maintenance and operation of the bridge to Oreva Group (Ajanta Manufacturing Limited) without the approval of the General Board. It closed the bridge for renovations in March 2022 and reopened it on 26 October without any prior approval or inspection.

10 accused have been arrested

According to the SIT, there were about 300 persons on the bridge at the time of the collapse, which was far more than the load carrying capacity of the bridge. However, it said that the actual capacity of the bridge would be confirmed by the laboratory report. The Morbi police has already arrested ten accused including Oreva Group Managing Director Jaysukh Patel under sections 304, 308, 336, 337 and 338 of the Indian Penal Code.