After a piece of the Gambhira Bridge, which connects the central Gujarat and Saurashtra areas of the state, fell into the Mahisagar River, five to six cars plunged into the river.
AHMEDABAD: Early Tuesday morning, the 40-year-old Gambhira Bridge over the Mahisagar River in Vadodara district fell down, killing 11 persons and injuring five others. Four vehicles, including two lorries and a Bolero jeep, fell into the river below.
The tragedy has shocked the area, and now people are angry since new information shows that officials had known about the bridge’s bad state for a long time.
A phone call between Lakhan Darbar, a social activist from Vadodara, and an officer from the Roads and Buildings department on August 22, 2022, has gone viral. The officer in the tape said the bridge was unsafe and “wouldn’t last long.”
However, nothing was done.
The officer who answered the call allegedly said that a repair plan had been sent, a design inspection team had been called, and the department was worried that the bridge wouldn’t last even that year. But the bridge stayed the same until it fell apart almost two years later.
A member of the district panchayat had sent in several written requests for urgent repairs, but none of them led to any action being taken, which only adds to the pattern of inaction.
After the event, activist Lakhan Darbar has called for criminal responsibility. “An FIR needs to be filed right away. He remarked, “The officers who are responsible should be arrested and put in jail.”
On the other hand, the government’s approach appears to be inconsistent.
The viral audiotape from three years ago suggests that there were warnings before, but Executive Engineer NM Nayakawala, who was there, said that the bridge had not shown any signs of degradation.
“The Gambhira Bridge was built in 1985 and will last for 100 years.” It wasn’t in terrible shape. Last year, maintenance work was done, and this year, potholes were fixed. There wasn’t any serious structural damage in our inspection report. People didn’t think the bridge was dangerous. “There will be a detailed report that will tell us exactly what caused the collapse,” Nayakawala informed the press.
Bhupendra Patel, the Chief Minister, said he was sad about the loss and that the state’s roads and structures department had been told to look into the collapse and provide a report.
In a post on X, he said that teams from the state roads and buildings department and private engineers who work on building bridges have been told to go to the scene right away and look into the reasons for the collapse and other technical issues. They will then write a report.
“The local municipality’s fire brigade and the Vadodara Municipal Corporation are working with boats and swimmers at the scene of the accident as part of the rescue and relief efforts.” The CM said, “The NDRF team has also arrived at the scene and is helping with the rescue.”
Rushikesh Patel, a minister in Gujarat, said that the bridge was built in 1985 and that it was taken care of as needed. He stated, “We will investigate the exact cause of the incident.”
Pictures showed that the whole slab of the bridge between two piers had fallen down. The automobiles that were traveling through the slab fell into the river when it fell apart.
The contradicting allegations have made people even angrier. The collapse is now considered a deadly example of bureaucratic indifference and ignored warnings, a calamity that should have been avoided but has now become a national humiliation.
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