JOIN USMorbi municipality says Oreva opened bridge without approval
The Morbi municipality on Wednesday informed Gujarat High Court that clock-making firm Oreva Group reopened the suspension bridge for public without its "prior approval" and "without letting it know about the kind of repairing work which was stated to have been carried out by the company".
In the affidavit filed in the court, the municipality also mentioned that the firm did not provide any independent third party's certificates relating to material testing, structure fitness, holding capacity and fitness, stability of the said suspension bridge.
It said that on October 30, as there was a huge rush of the people visiting the suspension bridge, the company had issued tickets to many visitors during the entire day, out of which, about more than 300 people were reported to have been allowed by ticket window operators and security personnel to visit the said bridge around 6.30 pm, which has been reported to have caused the unfortunate incident of collapse of the said bridge, because of which 135 people lost their lives.
Despite two weeks had passed since the incident, the police haven't questioned Oreva group's owner Jaysukh Patel. Local sources said that Patel's office and residence are still closed.
According to the affidavit, Ajanta Manufacturing Ltd (Oreva) had informed the municipality on December 12, 2021 that the condition of the bridge was critical and sought approval of draft proposal for extending the contract for its upkeep.
The division bench led by chief justice Aravind Kumar, while saying this information was 'intriguing", ordered the municipality to respond how the bridge remained opened despite the company claiming it to be critical.
The affidavit filed by Naran Muchhar, in charge chief officer Morbi, stated that the company had signed an MoU with the municipality effected from 2008 for bridge's maintenance, management, collection of rent, among others for a period of nine years. The company continued maintaining the bridge even after MoU had expired in 2017 and the contract was not renewed.
In January, 2020, the company intimated the authority that they would close down the bridge and it would not be "responsible for any unfortunate accident". It wrote to collector, Morbi intimating that "until an agreement is executed, they would not start the permanent repairing work of the suspension bridge, vide communications dated 14-2-2020, 3-6-2020, 17-7-2020 and 20-8-2020, with copies thereof forwarded to Morbi Nagar Palika".