November 1, 2022: Narendrabhai Modi visits Morbi
Narendrabhai Modi, Bhupendrabhai Patel & Officers at Morbi
135 persons, including 34 kids, lost their lives, when the old pedestrian suspension bridge, constructed by the then Maharaja in 1879, collapsed into the bed of Machhu river, in the evening of Sunday, 30th October 2022. The steel ropes, holding the bridge cracked on the side of LE College and the central part of the bridge broke down from the cables on the other side and fell into the river, carrying with it all those on the bridge.
The local swimmers started the rescue work immediately. At night, big lights from the city were brought in to light up the area of the accident. The army, the SDRF unit from Gondal, 30 soldiers of the Special Garud forces of the air force from Jam Nagar and Bhuj and 50 soldiers of the Indian Navy joined, with their under-water cameras and modern equipment for helping safely remove more than 177 persons from the river-bed.
9 officers of Oreva, the company, which was operating the bridge, were arrested. The company is supposed to have renovated the bridge during the last 7 months and the bridge was opened for users on 26th October 2022, the NewYear day of the year 2079, according to Vikrami calendar. It was holidays period. So, there was a large crowd of families, who had come to take a stroll on the bridge on Sunday.
In March, 2022, the local City Municipal Corporation awarded the contract to maintain and manage the bridge for 15 years to the Oreva Group. Oreva had closed the bridge for seven months for repairs and had opened it for public on the New Year eve only. Oreva opened the bridge without obtaining the fitness certificate from the Corporation. Oreva had won the contract to operate the bridge in 2007 also.
In 2001, Morbi had suffered a major earthquake, the epicenter of which was in Bhuj, 150 Km from Morbi. Narendra Modi had taken over as the Chief Minister, after some months of the earth quake. At that time, he had worked hard to put the life in the whole of the region back to normal.
Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi chaired a meeting in Morbi, Gujarat to review the situation in the wake of the unfortunate bridge mishap there.
Prime Minister said that the authorities must stay in touch with the affected families and ensure that they receive all possible help in this tragic hour.
Prime Minister said the need of the hour is to conduct a detailed and extensive inquiry which will identify all aspects relating to this mishap. He also added that the key learnings from the inquiry must be implemented at the earliest.
Those present at the meeting were Bhupendrabhai Patel, the Chief Minister, two other ministers Harsh Sanghavi and Brijesh Merja and Officers of Gujarat Government.
Earlier, upon reaching Morbi, the Prime Minister visited the site of the bridge mishap. He went to the local hospital, where the injured are recovering. He also interacted with those involved in rescue and relief work and lauded their fortitude.
Asia has suffered two other major mishaps in October 2022. On October 1, a crush at a soccer match killed 132 spectators in Indonesia. In South Korea, on Saturday, 29th October, more than 150 persons were killed in Itaewon, Seoul due to a surge in a Halloween crowd.