Four Gujarat Roads and Buildings department engineers suspended
VADODARA, July 10: The death toll in the Mahisagar river bridge collapse in Gujarat’s Vadodara district reached 17 even as a search-and-rescue operation was underway for three persons missing in the incident, officials said on Thursday.
Several vehicles plunged into the Mahisagar river after a segment of the four-decade-old bridge, connecting Anand and Vadodara districts, collapsed near Gambhira village close to Padra town on Wednesday morning. The incident had taken place at 7am.
“Three persons are still missing and a search-and-rescue operation is underway by at least 10 teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) and other agencies to locate survivors of bodies. So far, bodies of 17 victims have been recovered. Five injured persons are stable and will be discharged from hospital soon,” Vadodara Collector Anil Dhameliya told reporters.
Since the vehicles are stuck in a thick layer of mud in the river, retrieving them, including a truck, has become a challenging task because no machine is working in such a situation, Dhameliya said at the site of the incident.
On Thursday, Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel suspended four engineers of the state’s roads and buildings department in connection with the bridge collapse.
A government release identified the officials as Executive Engineer NM Nayakawala, Deputy Executive Engineers UC Patel and RT Patel as well as Assistant Engineer JV Shah, the release informed.
CM Patel, who handles the roads and buildings department, had asked experts to prepare a report on the repairs, inspections and quality checks conducted at the bridge, and the decision to suspend the four engineers was taken on the basis of this report, the release said.
Patel has ordered department officials to immediately conduct intensive inspections of other bridges in the state in view of the incident, the release added.
Meanwhile, the authorities are on the backfoot amid reports that a social activist had, in August 2022, flagged the bad condition of the ill-fated bridge.
In a three-year old audio clip that went viral on social media platforms after the collapse, social activist Lakhan Darbar, who runs ‘Yuva Sena’ outfit, can be heard urging a senior R&B official to either repair the bridge or build a new one.
Darbar told the official that Vadodara district panchayat member Harshadsinh Parmar had also sent a letter to the department expressing concern about the condition of the bridge built four decades ago.
Notably, when local media had confronted Nayakawala, Executive Engineer of R&B’s Vadodara division, on Wednesday after the incident, he had claimed no major fault was detected in the bridge during the department’s inspection.
“There was no demand to shut the bridge for vehicular movement. As per our reports, no major damage was detected during our inspection. There was an issue with the bearing coat but it was already repaired last year,” said Nayakawala, one of the four engineers suspended a day later by CM Patel.
At least six major incidents of bridge collapse have taken place in Gujarat since 2021.
In December 2021, a slab collapsed on the road during construction of Mumatpura flyover on the outskirts of Ahmedabad city. Luckily, no one was injured in the incident.
In October 2022, as many as 135 persons were killed when a British-era suspension bridge over Machchhu river in Morbi town collapsed when over 200 tourists were on it.In June 2023, a newly-built bridge on Mindhola river in Tapi district collapsed, though no one was hurt.
In September 2023, four persons were injured after a portion of an old bridge on Bhogavo river in Surendranagar district collapsed when a 40-ton dumper was navigating it near Wadhwan city.
In October 2023, two persons sitting in an autorickshaw died after six concrete girders or slabs, which were installed on the pillars of an under-construction bridge near the RTO Circle in Palanpur town of Banaskantha, suddenly collapsed.
In August 2024, a small bridge on Bhogavo river connecting Habiyasar village with Chotila town in Surendranagar district collapsed due to a sudden rise in water following discharge from an overflowing dam. No casualties were reported in the incident. (PTI)