Built for Rs 42 cr, to be rebuilt for Rs 53 cr: The strange saga of a Gujarat bridge

Seven years ago, a key bridge connecting two busy areas of Ahmedabad West was inaugurated with much fanfare. The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) spent Rs 42 crore on the project.

But the construction quality was so poor that within two months, the Hatkeshwar Bridge had to be closed to traffic and repaired, and then completely closed after five years.

And now, the civic body will demolish the bridge altogether and rebuild it — for a cost that overruns its original building cost by more than Rs 10 crore.

Defects detected within 2 months

The Hatkeshwar Bridge, which was built to connect Khokhra and CTM areas of Ahmedabad West, has been at the centre of controversy since it was opened to the public in November 2017.

Within merely two months, that is, by January 2018, some structural defects were spotted, after which the bridge was repaired.

“The bridge was completely closed to traffic after being deemed unsafe in a stability report conducted in August 2022,” said Harsh Sanghavi, Gujarat’s Minister of State for Home.

And since 2018, the AMC invited tenders four times for its demolition but had to repeatedly extend the deadline to seek more applications. Yet, no bidder came forward for the project.

The latest tender, which closed on August 6, ended with only one bidder, who was finalised for the demolition project.

Company to pay for demolition, reconstruction

Though the AMC has said it will recover the entire amount being spent to demolish and rebuild the bridge from the company that built the bridge in 2017, the whole bridge saga raises serious questions on the efficiency of the BJP-run civic body.

The bridge was built by Ajay Engineering Infrastructure Pvt Ltd and its project monitoring consultant and partner SGS India Pvt Ltd. “The total cost of the bridge, including reconstruction, will run up to Rs 94 crore in just five years, and this amount will be recovered from the Ajay Engineering Infrastructure company,” said Sanghavi.

The civic body has since blacklisted the contractor and its bosses have been arrested.

Repeated closures and repairs

“The Hatkeshwar Bridge was damaged by January 2018, when some structural defects came to light, making it unsuitable for public use,” Devang Dani, chairman of the AMC’s Standing Committee, told The Federal.

However, the bridge was temporarily closed, repaired, and once again opened for the public. But in March 2021, it had to be temporarily closed all over again due to a massive pothole in the middle of the carriageway.

Later, a committee was formed by the AMC to investigate the bridge’s condition after commuters lodged several complaints.

In 2022, IIT-Roorkee conducted a stability test and declared the bridge unfit for use. The report stated, “No load test was carried out by the contractor before putting the bridge into operation and poor-quality concrete has been used exhausting all safety factors in design and materials.”

After that, the bridge was closed permanently.

Company bosses arrested; AMC staff suspended

Based on the report, the AMC Standing Committee held that “this is a clear conspiracy on part of the contract and project management consulting in defrauding AMC.”

The civic body blacklisted the contractor and lodged an FIR against Ramesh Patel, chairman of Ajay Infra, his sons and managing directors Chirag Kumar Patel and Kalpesh Kumar Patel, another managing director Rasik Ambalal Patel, and three officials of SGS India Pvt Ltd on charges of criminal breach of trust, cheating, and criminal conspiracy.

All the four directors of the company were arrested along with Pravin Desai and Bhailalbhai Pandya of SGS India. The AMC also decided to take legal action against seven of its own staff members, leading to their suspension.

No bidders for mammoth task

However, the bridge would have to be demolished and rebuilt, but the AMC struggled to find bidders despite issuing tenders since 2018 itself.

“The AMC invited tenders thrice for the demolition and reconstruction, but no company responded. The third time, we received one bid from a Maharashtra-based company but many documents were missing. We reached out to the company several times for the submission of these missing documents. But in the end, the company backed out,” Dani told The Federal.

In the fourth attempt, a company from Rajasthan agreed to take on the project.

“The fourth tender worth Rs 52.7 crore was received from a company named Vishnu Prakash R Punglia Limited. We have sent its documents for evaluation to the auditors and expect a report within a week,” Dani added.

Tall order

The AMC now aims to complete the demolition process within 15 days and have the new bridge ready in the next 18 months, Dani said.

However, according to the tender submitted to the AMC, demolition and reconstruction will take 28 months, with four months only for preliminary surveys and design preparation.

The demolition phase will involve the removal of outdated components using advanced machinery such as jaw crushers and diamond-cutting tools.