Morbi bridge was proposed to reopen after temporary repairs in 2020: documents

The bridge, which collapsed on Sunday in Gujarat’s Morbi and left at least 135 people dead, underwent multiple repairs, and the Oreva Group that renovated it at one point considered reopening it after temporary repairs in 2020, according to documents HT has seen.

The group wrote to the Morbi collector in August 2020 saying that they will open the “temporarily repaired” bridge if their contract is not renewed and they were not awarded a permanent one for its maintenance and management. HT has seen a copy of the letter.

An official said the government needs to follow a procedure to take such decisions. The bridge has mostly remained open for the public except when restrictions were imposed on gatherings during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“When it was opened in the pre-Covid-19 period, the number of visitors per day did not exceed over 100. This was for the first time [on Sunday] that so many people gathered on the bridge,” said a Morbi municipality official, requesting anonymity.

Girish Saraiya, a former Morbi municipality chief officer, said the contract for maintenance, repair, and security of the bridge, which suffered some damages in the 2001 earthquake, was given to Ajanta Group.

“It was repaired by the Oreva Group and opened to the public for 10 years in 2008. Their term ended in 2018 after which they needed to raise the ticket prices [for using the bridge] to recover the costs required for renovation and repair of the bridge. The municipality turned down their request for the price increase. Also due to Covid-19 restrictions, the bridge could not be opened to the public for almost two years.”

The municipal body was negotiating with Oreva on the permanent agreement, which was finally signed in February 2022.

Saraiya said Oreva Group submitted its proposal again for renovation and reopening of the bridge. He added they did not have a copy of the contract letter. Saraiya said the Oreva Group said it was also unable to find it when asked for it.

“I think they submitted their agreement copy of 2008 to the Rajkot collector office. We asked them for their terms and condition for the operations and management of the bridge. This was sometime in January this year. The bridge needed repairs given it was a very old bridge,” said Saraiya, who was transferred in February, over a month before the agreement was signed between the Morbi municipality and Oreva.

A court in Morbi on Tuesday remanded four of the nine people arrested after the collapse into police custody. They include Oreva’s managers Dipak Parekh and Dinesh Dave and contractors Prakash Parmar and Devang Parmar. On Monday, the nine were booked under the Indian Penal Code (IPC)’s Section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder).

Public prosecutor H S Panchal on Wednesday said the contractors, who carried out the repairs, were not qualified to carry out such work. He added the nine arrested accused were slapped with fresh charges under IPC’s Sections 336 and 337 for endangering life and personal safety.

Panchal cited a Forensic Science Laboratory report and told a local court on Tuesday that experts believed that the main cable of the bridge snapped because of the weight of the new flooring.

One of the lawyers defending an accused argued in the court that the collapse was an “act of God”.