'Oreva opened Morbi bridge without municipality nod'

Ahmedabad: The Morbi municipality has told the Gujarat High Court that the company tasked with renovating the bridge, which collapsed killing 135 people, reopened it without any 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 (on its own) 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 people.

The HC had sought to know the reasons for allowing Ajanta Manufacturing Private Ltd (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.

The agreement said that "it is for Ajanta (OREVA Group) to appropriately renovate and it is only thereafter that they would open the same for the public at large, which would take minimum 8 to 12 months from the date of the agreement," the civic body informed the court.

The company had started reminding the civic body of renewing the terms since January 2020 when it said it would "completely close down the suspension bridge from January 26, 2020 and thereafter, the company would not be responsible for any unfortunate accident with reference to the said suspension bridge," the affidavit stated.

The bridge continued to remain in operation and on December 29, 2021, the company informed the then chief officer of Morbi municipality that the condition of the suspension bridge was "critical," while requesting it to take a decision on the renewal of the 2007 MoU which expired way back in 2017, the affidavit said.