The special investigation team (SIT), which was formed to investigate the Morbi bridge collapse tragedy on October 30, last year, which killed 135 people, has submitted a damning report to the Gujarat high court, highlighting administrative and technical lapses and omissions on the part of multiple stakeholders, which resulted in no corrective action being taken to improve the bridge's condition, resulting in the deaths of innocent people.
SIT has questioned the validity of the Morbi suspension bridge maintenance agreement, claiming that Morbi municipality's chief officer should not have signed the agreement with the Oreva group without first receiving consent from the municipality's general board.
Even before it was open to the general public, the bridge appeared to be a disaster waiting to happen. According to the SIT report, 22 of the 49 cables, or roughly half of the cables that suspended the Morbi bridge, were extremely corroded.
The SIT investigation said that the Gujarat Municipality Act was breached when the civic body executed an agreement with Oreva without the consent of the general body. The agreement between the chief officer and Oreva was signed on March 8, 2022, and it included a clause stating that the agreement's execution was subject to approval by the general body, which never had an opportunity to consider because the issue was never discussed in the subsequent meeting.
The SIT states in its preliminary report that any contract to be undertaken after the current fiscal year requires the prior consent of the general body under section 65(3) of the Gujarat Municipality Act. The contract in this case was for 15 years. "The agreement should not have been signed by the chief officer without prior clearance from the general board. The last meeting opposed the increase in user charges. Even so, the chief officer signed the agreement with a condition that allowed him to raise the rate,” as per the report.
The SIT also called out the municipality's president, vice president, and chairman of the executive committee, in addition to chief officer Sandipsinh Zala. On the same day, the three municipal office bearers signed the 'Rojkam,' confirming the arrangement. "This shows that they were aware of the terms of the arrangement. They should have brought this arrangement up for consideration at the next general body meeting," the SIT opines.
The SIT has emphasised the company's incompetence, which resulted in the death of 135 people on October 30, 2022. When the municipality refused to approve the company's request to increase user charges and demanded the bridge's possession back, the team stated, “The corporation neglected to turn over the bridge to the appropriate authorities. Neither party could take corrective measures to improve the bridge's condition.”
The company has also been criticized for mismanagement, claiming that there were no restrictions on the number of people who can use the bridge at any given time, no restrictions on ticket sales, and insufficient security to prevent the public from harming the bridge.
SIT discovered that Oreva outsourced bridge repair work to an inept business and that repairs were carried out without consulting qualified technical experts or checking the main cable and vertical suspenders.
