A cable suspension bridge collapsed in Morbi, Gujarat on October 31, 2022
| Photo Credit: Vijay Soneji
The Gujarat government-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) has discovered in its preliminary probe that corrosion on almost half of the wires on a cable and welding of previous suspenders with new ones had been a number of the main faults that led to the collapse of the suspension bridge in Morbi final 12 months in which 135 individuals had been killed.
These findings are a part of the ‘Preliminary Report on Morbi Bridge Incident’ submitted by the five-member SIT in December 2022. The report was just lately shared with the Morbi Municipality by the State Urban Development Department.
Ajanta Manufacturing Limited (Oreva Group) was chargeable for the operation and upkeep of the British-era suspension bridge on the Machchu river that collapsed on October 30 final 12 months. The SIT had discovered a number of lapses in repairs, upkeep and operation of the bridge.
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 had been members of the SIT.
The SIT famous that of the 2 fundamental cables of the bridge, constructed by the erstwhile rulers in 1887 over river Machchhu, one cable was having problems with corrosion and almost half of its wires “may be already broken” even earlier than the cable snapped on October 30 night.
Main cable snapped
According to the SIT, the principle cable on the upstream facet of the river snapped, resulting in the tragedy. Each cable was shaped by seven strands, every comprising seven metal wires. Total 49 wires had been clubbed collectively in seven strands to kind this cable, the SIT report stated.
“It was observed that out of the 49 wires (of that cable), 22 were corroded, which indicates that those wires may have already been broken before the incident. The remaining 27 wires recently broke,” the SIT stated in its report.
The SIT additionally discovered that throughout 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, with out the approval of the final board, had awarded the contract to take care of and function the bridge to Oreva Group (Ajanta Manufacturing Limited), which had closed the bridge in March 2022 for renovation and opened it on October 26 with none prior approval or inspection.
‘Far more than capacity’
According to the SIT, there have been almost 300 individuals on the bridge on the time of collapse, which was “far more” than the load-bearing capability of the bridge. It, nevertheless, stated the precise capability of the bridge can be confirmed by laboratory studies.
The probe report additionally identified that changing particular person wood planks with an aluminium deck additionally performed a task 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 had been fastened with none hole in between, which makes the deck much less versatile to deform in its personal airplane, stated the SIT, including that using aluminium might have elevated the general weight of the bridge too.
The Morbi police have already arrested ten accused, together with Oreva Group’s MD Jaysukh Patel, underneath IPC Sections 304 (culpable murder not amounting to homicide), 308 (try and commit culpable murder), 336 (act which endangers human life), 337 (inflicting damage to any individual by doing any rash or negligent act) and underneath 338 (inflicting grievous damage by doing rash or negligent act).
