Gujarat HC seeks status report on Morbi bridge collapse probe

The Gujarat High Court on Monday sought a status report of the probe into the Morbi bridge collapse that claimed the lives of 135 people in the state.

A division bench of Chief Justice Aravind Kumar and Justice Ashutosh Shastri took suo motu cognisance of the October 30 tragedy and issued notices to the Gujarat government through the chief secretary, state home department, commissioner of municipalities, Morbi municipality, district collector and State Human Rights Commission and relisted the matter on November 14.

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Nine people including, two ticket clerks, two contractors and two managers of Oreva group, which was entrusted with the repair and maintenance of the bridge, have been arrested. The accused had been remanded to police custody.

One manager of the Oreva group reportedly said that the bridge collapse was an “act of God”. It was also said that the bridge’s cables were quite rusted.

Around 300-400 people were on the bridge over river Machchu as against an allowed capacity of 100-150 during the time of the collapse on October 30. The bridge, which was shut for repair services, was thrown opened to public on October 26 without government approval or quality testing.

(With agencies inputs)