Nearly half of the wires of one of the two main cables of the suspension bridge in Gujarat’s Morbi were corroded when it collapsed in October, a Special Investigation Team has found in its preliminary inquiry, PTI reported on Sunday.
The colonial-era bridge on the city’s Machchu river collapsed on October 30, resulting in the death of 141 persons. The bridge collapsed just four days after it was reopened for the public following seven months of renovation.
“It was observed that out of the 49 wires [of that cable], 22 were corroded, which indicates that those wires may have already broken before the incident,” the team said in its report. “The remaining 27 wires recently broke.”
The report was submitted by the five-member Special Investigation Team in December 2022 to the Gujarat government. It was recently shared with the Morbi civic body, according to PTI.
On November 15, the Gujarat High Court had asked the state government to explain why the contract for the renovation of the century-old bridge was given to the Oreva Group, best known for making clocks and electrical products, without floating a tender. The High Court is hearing a public interest litigation on the matter.
The Morbi civic body had claimed that the Oreva Group opened the suspension bridge without its approval. On its part, the Oreva Group had told the court that “some very highly placed entities” persuaded it to take over the repair and operation of the bridge.
In its report, the Special Investigation Team said that it has found several lapses in repairs, maintenance and operation of the bridge.
The team said that old suspenders – steel rods that connect the cable with the platform deck – were welded with new suspenders, reported PTI.
“Hence the behaviour of suspenders changed,” the report noted. “In these types of bridges, single rod suspenders should be used to bear the load.”
It also said that there were nearly 300 people on the bridge at the time of the collapse, which was “far more” than its load-bearing capacity. No load test or structure test was conducted before opening the bridge, the team said.
“Walking structure was made up of rigid aluminium panels instead of flexible wooden planks,” the Special Investigation Team added. “If there were individual wooden planks [which were removed during renovation], the number of casualties could have been lower.”
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