Corroded wires, welded suspenders behind Morbi bridge tragedy: SIT report

Gujarat governmentappointed Special Investigation Team SIT has in its preliminary probe found that corrosion on nearly half of the wires on a cable and welding of old suspenders with new ones were some of the major faults that led to the collapse of a suspension bridge in Morbi last year in which 135 people were killedOf the two main cables of the Britishera bridge built by the erstwhile rulers in 1887 over the Machchhu river one cable was having issues of corrosion and nearly half of its wires may be already broken even before the cable snapped on the evening of October 30 2022 the SIT noted The main cable on the upstream side of the river snapped leading to the tragedy as per the SITThe findings are part of the Preliminary Report on Morbi Bridge Incident submitted by the fivemember SIT in December 2022 The report was recently shared by the state Urban Development Department with the Morbi Municipality Ajanta Manufacturing Limited Oreva Group was responsible for the operation and maintenance of the Britishera suspension bridge on the Machchhu river which collapsed on October 30 2022The SIT found several lapses in repairs maintenance and operation of the bridge Each cable was formed by seven strands each comprising seven steel wires Total 49 wires were clubbed together in seven strands to form this cable the SIT report saidAlso Read Morbi bridge collapse case Jaysukh Patel surrenders before Gujarat courtIt 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 remaining 27 wires recently broke it said The SIT also found that during the renovation work old suspenders steel rods which connect the cable with the platform deck were welded with the new suspenders Hence the behaviour of suspenders changed In these types of bridges single rod suspenders should be used to bear the load Notably the Morbi Municipality without the approval of the general board had awarded the contract to maintain and operate the bridge to Oreva Group Ajanta Manufacturing Limited which had closed the bridge in March 2022 for renovation and opened it on October 26 without any prior approval or inspection According to the SIT there were nearly 300 people on the bridge at the time of collapse which was far more than its load bearing capacity It however said the actual capacity of the bridge will be confirmed by laboratory reportsThe probe report also pointed out that replacing individual wooden planks with an aluminium deck also played a role in the collapse Walking structure was made up of rigid aluminium panels instead of flexible wooden planks If there were individual wooden planks which were there before renovation the number of casualties could have been lower Moreover no load test or structure test was conducted before opening the bridge it added The aluminium honeycomb panels were fixed without any gap in between which makes the deck less flexible to deform in its own plane the SIT said adding the use of aluminium could have increased the overall weight of the bridge too IAS officer Rajkumar Beniwal IPS officer Subhash Trivedi a secretary and a chief engineer from the state Roads and Building Department and a professor of structural engineering were members of the SITThe Morbi police have already arrested 10 people including Oreva Groups MD Jaysukh Patel and booked them under Indian Penal Code sections 304 culpable homicide not amounting to murder 308 attempt to commit culpable homicide 336 act which endangers human life 337 causing hurt to any person by doing any rash or negligent act and under 338 causing grievous hurt by doing rash or negligent act PTI COR PJT PD NP This message and the attachments hereto if any hereinafter referred to as ldquothe informationrdquo is confidential and privileged communication intended solely for the use of the individual or entity that it is addressed and others authorized to receive it The disclosure distribution copying or reuse of the information or any content thereof without express authorization is strictly prohibited If you have received this message in error please advise the sender by return email at emailadminjagrancom and delete the message from your system Although the company has taken reasonable precautions to ensure no viruses are present in this email the company cannot accept responsibility for any loss or damage arising from the use of this email or attachments Email transmission cannot be guaranteed to be secure or errorfree as information could be intercepted corrupted lost destroyed arrive late or incomplete or contain virusesThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever