134 dead, 134 missing after Morbi bridge collapse; rescue efforts continues

According to a senior Gujarat police official, 134 people have died as a result of the collapse of the Morbi suspension bridge, and the rescue effort is still ongoing. Bhupendra Patel, the chief minister of Gujarat, and Harsh Sanghavi, the minister of state for the home, stayed in Morbi through the night to monitor the rescue effort being carried out by numerous agencies. After substantial repairs and renovations, the more than a century-old Machchhu River bridge in Morbi, which is around 300 kilometres from the state capital Gandhinagar, reopened five days ago. Around 6.30 p.m. on Sunday, it fell as it was packed with passengers.

Inspector General Ashok Yadav of the Rajkot Range told PTI that "the death toll in the bridge collapse tragedy has increased to 134." The state information office reported that in addition to local rescue teams, the operation involved five teams from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), six platoons from the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), a team from the Air Force, two columns from the Army, and two teams from the Indian Navy.

The rescue effort is still ongoing, according to Yadav. According to Sanghavi, a committee has been established by the state government to investigate the bridge collapse. According to eyewitnesses, several women and children were on the "hanging bridge" from the British era when it collapsed, sending them into the lake below. Aside from residents, others had flocked to the bridge on a holiday from nearby cities and villages as well.

Due to the Diwali holiday and the fact that it was a Sunday, there was a surge of visitors to the bridge, a popular tourist destination. According to an eyewitness, several people were observed climbing on the bridge and tugging its large wires before to the catastrophe, and they may have caused the bridge to collapse due to the "massive crowd" on it. He claimed that when the bridge fell, people tripped over one another. To keep themselves from falling into the river, several of the victims were observed hanging by the edge of the bridge.

After the bridge fell, all that was left of it was a section of metal roadway that hung down into the river water from one end and had some of its heavy cables broken. Victims at the nearby hospital formed a human chain to control the throng and keep the route open for the ambulances that delivered the rescued people. Prior to being reopened to the public on October 26, the day of the Gujarati New Year, a private operator had been working on the bridge's repairs for about seven months. A civic official stated that the bridge had not yet received the municipality's "fitness certificate" despite having been reopened following a private inauguration function.

The PM's Office tweeted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is now in Gujarat, spoke with CM Patel and other authorities. According to the PMO, Modi announced an ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh from the Prime Minister's National Relief Fund (PMNRF) for each deceased person's next of kin and Rs 50,000 for each injured person. The state government offered compensation for the injured and the deceased in the amount of Rs 50,000 and Rs 4 lakh, respectively. According to BJP insiders, Modi cancelled his road show that was planned to take place in Ahmedabad on Monday ahead of the state Assembly elections as a result of the accident. He will go to an event in Ahmedabad to kick off certain railway projects.

The sources also said that a "page committee sammelan" that was supposed to take place on Tuesday in Modi's virtual presence had been postponed. Following the bridge collapse, the Congress said that its "Parivartan Sankalp Yatra," which was scheduled to leave from five zones across the state on Monday, had been postponed by one day.

(source : PTI)