Morbi bridge collapse: 22 of 49 wires broke long before incident, probe finds

The Gujarat government-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) formed to investigate the Morbi bridge collapse has released an initial report that says that corrosion on nearly half of the wires on a cable and welding of old suspenders with new ones were the major reason why the bridge collapsed. The Morbi bridge collapse last year had killed 135 people in the west Indian state, raising questions about its upkeep, maintenance and what caused the historic bridge to collapse.

The findings were a part of "Preliminary Report on Morbi Bridge Incident" submitted by the five-member SIT in December 2022. It was recently shared with the Morbi Municipality by the state Urban Development Department. The SIT has reported several lapses in repairs and maintenance of the British-era suspension bridge, both of which were the responsibility of Ajanta Manufacturing Limited (Oreva Group). The bridge over the Machchu river had collapsed on October 30 last year.

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Several cables were already broken

The SIT noted that of the two main cables of the bridge, one cable had corrosion and nearly half of its wires "may be already broken" long before the cable snapped. The SIT said that the main cable on the upstream side of the river snapped, leading to the tragedy.

Each cable was formed by seven strands, each comprising seven steel wires. A total of 49 wires were clubbed together in seven strands to form this cable, the SIT report said. "It was observed that out of the 49 wires (of that cable), 22 were corroded, which indicates that those wires may have already broken before the incident. The remaining 27 wires recently broke," the SIT said in its report.

The SIT report further said that when the renovation work was done, "old suspenders were welded with the new suspenders. Hence the behaviour of suspenders changed. In these types of bridges, single rod suspenders should be used to bear the load".

The SIT also said that the Morbi bridge had nearly 300 people on it at the time of the tragedy, "far more" than the load bearing capacity of the bridge.

The Morbi bridge collapse report also pointed out that replacing individual wooden planks with an aluminium deck was also a reason for the collapse of the bridge.

"Walking structure was made up of rigid aluminium panels instead of flexible wooden planks. If there were individual wooden planks (which were there before renovation), the number of casualties could have been lower. Moreover, no load test or structure test was conducted before opening the bridge," the report said.

(With inputs from agencies)

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