November 3, 2022
SINGAPORE – They had flocked to the newly reopened suspension bridge on a Sunday evening during India’s most festive season, buying a ticket costing the equivalent of about 20 US cents (28 Singapore cents) or less to experience the sensation of swaying across the wide Machchhu River in the western Indian state of Gujarat.
The 233m-long pedestrian bridge, built during the Victorian era, had long been a tourist attraction.
It was packed as the sun set on Sunday and the intense heat eased.
As countless others had done before them, some on the span spread their arms across its 1.2m width, grabbing the green netting on either side and making the bridge shimmy from side to side.
Then, suddenly, the cables snapped, and the bridge spilt its human cargo into the river, like a fishing net releasing its catch. Once in the dark water, some tried to swim to the fallen structure and climb up its tangled netting. Others were swept away.
The regional police chief, Mr Ashok Yadav, said on Monday morning that at least 140 people had been killed, but later revised that number to 134. He gave no reason for the new number.
Many of the victims were schoolchildren on vacation during the Diwali holiday and migrant workers celebrating a Hindu festival, leaving India to ask once again why its infrastructure keeps failing so calamitously.
Mr Yadav said a police case had been filed, and nine people – including two company managers, two ticket takers, two bridge repairmen and three security guards – had been arrested on charges of attempting to commit culpable homicide and of causing death by negligence.
On Monday, platoons of disaster response workers and members of India’s armed forces combed the fast-moving river in small boats, paddling through the mangroves next to the riverbanks, searching for the missing.
In the afternoon, Indian navy rescue divers were still looking for victims 12 hours after the last body had been recovered.
“The scene is rotating in my head, bodies lying here and there, being taken out, everyone shouting, ‘Save me, save me, save me,’” one survivor, Mahesh Bhai, told a TV reporter from his hospital bed.
He was among the dozens of people who had been injured in the collapse but had survived. More than 180 people were rescued in all.
The colonial-era bridge is among a collection of attractions in the quaint town of Morbi, whose ceramic tile industry draws workers from across India.
It was a favourite meeting place for young lovers to escape parents’ prying eyes, said Mr Devyesh Pithva, who a decade ago met the woman who became his wife on the bridge.
He had visited the structure on Friday, and, out of a sense of poignancy, returned to the site of the disaster Monday.
In March, the bridge’s operations were awarded to Ajanta Manufacturing, a local clock and electronics manufacturer.
Ajanta’s founder, Mr Odhavaji Patel, was known in India as the “father of wall clocks”. The company he ran before his death also makes light bulbs and toothpaste.
What is unclear from business records is whether Ajanta had any experience operating bridges before taking over the one in Morbi.
After winning the contract, Ajanta, which also goes by the name Oreva Group, managed seven months of repairs on the bridge, which had been in poor condition.
The structure reopened four days before the disaster, timed to coincide with the Gujarati New Year on Oct 26.
On Monday, scrutiny turned to how Ajanta had won the contract, and to whether the company had ties to the Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP, which has governed Gujarat for more than two decades and which also controls the national government, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
A municipal official told the Indian news media that the bridge had been opened without a “fitness certificate” or authorities’ permission. Unaddressed was why authorities did not shut down the bridge if it had been reopened without approval.
National Disaster Response Force personnel work in the aftermath of a pedestrian suspension bridge collapse in Morbi, India, on Oct 31, 2022. PHOTO: EPA-EFE
Mr Arjun Modhwadia, a member of the Congress party and a former opposition leader in Gujarat, said BJP leaders had announced the bridge’s opening as a “Diwali gift to the people of Morbi”, without ensuring its safety.
Mr Yamal Vyas, a spokesman for the BJP in Gujarat, said the national government had appointed a “high-powered committee” to investigate the disaster.
Mr Modi, who was campaigning in Gujarat, his home state, before fiercely contested state assembly elections, cancelled at least some of the rest of the week’s campaign events.
“Congress wants to ply politics in everything,” Mr Vyas said.
Ajanta blamed the victims.
“Too many people in the midsection of the bridge were trying to sway it from one side to the other,” a newspaper, The Indian Express, quoted a company spokesman as saying.
Members of India’s Youth Congress take part in a candlelight march in New Delhi on Oct 31, 2022, to pay homage to the victims. PHOTO: AFP
It was unclear why the company had allowed so many people on the bridge at once.
Ajanta did not immediately respond to requests for comment from The New York Times.
The company’s chair, Mr Jaysukh Patel, spoke at a news conference on Monday.
“This hanging bridge is a historical treasure of Morbi,” Mr Patel said, adding that Ajanta had hired a subcontractor with experience repairing bridges to meet “technical specifications” and other requirements.
If history holds, it may be unlikely that any companies or municipal officials face serious consequences.
Infrastructure failures caused by overcrowding are common in India and rarely result in accountability or change.
Building contracts are often awarded to relatives or associates of political leaders, who can acquire necessary permissions but may not be competent builders.
Planning is piecemeal. On-site supervision is weak. Safety measures are haphazard. And life, when it is lost, costs the government very little.
When things go wrong, officials offer cash compensation.
On Sunday, within hours of the disaster, Gujarat’s chief minister, Mr Bhupendra Patel, announced payments of about US$4,800 (about S$6,800) for each of the families of the dead and about US$600 for the injured. NYTIMES