The Special Investigation Team appointed by the Government of the Indian state of Gujarat has concluded in its first investigation that corrosion was one of the main reasons for the Morbi bridge collapse in October last year which killed around 140 people.
The wear, together with a bad combination in the welding of the materials between new and old parts, ended up triggering the collapse of the bridge suspension.
Some 500 people, including women and children, were crossing the bridge when the cables supporting it broke and they all fell into the water.. Apparently many of them were performing Chhath rituals of the Vedic religion.
Ajanta Manufacturing Limited (Oreva Group) was responsible for the operation and maintenance of the suspension bridge, built in 1887 (during the British era) over the Machchu River which collapsed on October 30, 2021. Nine workers were detained during the initial investigations.
The team of researchers has even ventured that twenty cables could have been broken before the main cable fracture, which led to the tragedy.
"Of the 49 strands (of that cable), 22 were found to be corroded, indicating that those strands may have already broken prior to the incident. The remaining 27 threads were recently broken"according to the report, picked up by NDTV.