Last year, on October 30, the Morbi Bridge, which is a pedestrian suspension bridge in Gujarat’s Morbi, collapsed. The collapse of the bridge led to 135 people losing their lives and more than 180 being injured. The Gujarat government had appointed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to find out the reason behind the collapse. The preliminary probe concludes that out of 49 wires, 22 were rusted and broken before the accident itself.
Probe Reports On The Morbi Bridge Collapse
The Special Investigation Team (SIT) probe report has found out that way before the Morbi Bridge collapse incident took place, many of the wires were already rusted and broken. The preliminary probe informed us that some of the primary flaws that caused the collapse were fusing old suspenders with new ones and rust on nearly half the wires in a cable.
The state Urban Development Agency recently gave the report to Morbi Municipality. Moreover, the SIT discovered that during the renovations, the new suspenders were welded to the existing suspenders. As a result, the suspenders’ behaviour changed. Single rod suspenders should be used to support the load in these types of bridges.
CCTV footage of moment before #Morbi bridge collapse. Deeply painful! 👇 pic.twitter.com/vtzuPvQ4B8
— YSR (@ysathishreddy) October 31, 2022
The Load Was More Than The Capacity
Morbi Bridge is a pedestrian suspension bridge built over the Machchhu River in Gujarat. For the operations and maintenance of the British-era bridge, Ajanta Manufacturing Limited (Oreva Group) was responsible. Notably, the Oreva Group (Ajanta Manufacturing Limited) closed the bridge in March 2022 for renovations and opened it on October 26 without any prior approval or inspection. It was given the contract to maintain and operate the bridge by the Morbi Municipality.
There were nearly 300 people on the bridge when it collapsed, which was way more than its capacity. SIT also said the replacement of wooden planks with aluminium panels is also one of the reasons behind the collapse.
Also Read: Gujarat’s Cable Bridge In Morbi Collapses; 132 Tourists Dead As Rescue Operations Carry On
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Cover Image Courtesy: Wikipedia