After a soon-to-open Gujarat bridge collapsed, 3 engineers were suspended

A freshly built bridge on the Mindhola river in the Valod taluka of Tapi district collapsed on Wednesday morning, sparking a social media storm in the state as Cyclone Biparjoy is expected to make landfall off the Gujarat coast in a few hours. The bridge hadn’t yet been officially opened.

The executive engineer, deputy engineer, and assistant engineer were suspended with immediate effect on Wednesday night, the government said, after chief minister Bhupendra Patel took serious notice of the occurrence.

According to the government statement, “The prima facie investigation suggests that inferior materials were used in the construction of the bridge. As a result, CM Bhupendra Patel decided to take stern action against the concerned officers and suspended three officials.” The government also made the decision to put Akshay Construction (Surat), which was involved in the bridge’s construction, on a blacklist and to start the process of recovering the money from the agency.

Locals claim that at approximately 7 am, the central section of the bridge that links Degama village in Vyara taluka of Tapi district with Mayapur village in Valod taluka fell into the river.

In Gujarat’s Morbi town in October 2022, a pedestrian suspension bridge over the Machchu River collapsed, killing more than 135 people.