Morbi bridge collapsed due to God’s will !

Accused’s statement in Court

Morbi (Gujarat) –  Deepak Parekh, the manager of the Oreva establishment, which was responsible for the maintenance of the suspension bridge that collapsed at Morbi in Gujarat, said, ‘This bridge collapsed due to God’s will’. He made the above statement in Court. Government advocates however stated that ‘the cables of the bridge were worn out and were not replaced during the renovation’. The Morbi and Rajkot Bar Association has decided not to seek the counsel of those responsible for the incident.

1. A 15-year contract was signed between the Morbi Municipal Corporation and Anjata Orewa Corporation to maintain the bridge. The agreement was signed in the month of March 2022 and the term of the agreement was up to 2037. Deepak Parekh, Dinesh Dave, Mansukh Topia, Mahadev Solanki, Prakash Parmar, Devang, Alpesh Gohil, Dilip Gohil and Mukesh Chauhan were arrested in connection to this accident.

2. In the name of renovation, the wooden base of the bridge was replaced by 4 layers of aluminium sheets which increased the weight of the bridge significantly. As the rush of people increased, the bridge collapsed as the old cables could not sustain the load. The Gujarat Police  submitted the above information to the Court through an affidavit.

3. The Government advocate, Panchal said, ‘As per the investigation conducted by the ‘Forensic Science Lab’, 4 cables on which the bridge was erected were not replaced even after 7 months since the repairs were carried out. The contractors who carried out the repairs did not have sufficient knowledge of suspension bridge technology and structural strength. Hence, they focussed only on the upper part of the bridge. So from the outside, the bridge looked rigid but on the inside, it was all worn out.

Editorial viewpoint

Those who blame God for this accident instead of taking responsibility for their carelessness and negligence should be punished with a death sentence !