Repair firm reopened Morbi bridge without approval, Gujarat High Court told
Ahmedabad, November 17
The Morbi municipality has told the Gujarat High Court that the company tasked with renovating the bridge, which collapsed killing 135 persons, reopened it without prior approval and without informing the civic body about the repair work carried out.
The municipality also informed the court on Wednesday that as per a 2022 agreement between the civic body and the firm, it was for the Ajanta company to “appropriately renovate” the bridge and only then open it for the public.
The civic body submitted the affidavit before a Division Bench of Chief Justice Aravind Kumar and Justice Ashutosh Shastri which is hearing a suo motu case on the collapse of the bridge.
The British-era suspension bridge on the Machchhu river in Morbi town collapsed on October 30, five days after it was reopened following renovation, killing 135 persons.
The HC had sought to know the reasons for allowing Ajanta Manufacturing Private Limited (Oreva Group) to use the bridge despite there being no approval for utilisation.
The Ahmedabad-based Oreva Group had been maintaining and managing the ill-fated suspension bridge The Morbi municipality, in its affidavit, said as per a condition in a new agreement made on March 8, 2022, between the civic body and Ajanta Manufacturing, the latter was required to “appropriately renovate” the bridge before opening it for the public at large. Even when the 2007 Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Rajkot collector (when Morbi was part of Rajkot) and the company had expired on August 15, 2017, the suspension bridge continued to be maintained and managed by the company, “in the absence of there being any new agreement”, till it was closed for repair on March 8, 2022, when the new agreement was signed, the civic body said.
