Morbi Disaster: Oreva Spent only 6% of Allocated Fund for Renovation

MORBI : The Oreva Group was allocated the work of renovations of the suspension bridge in Morbi in Gujarat. This was the same bridge that collapsed, leading to the death of a total of 135 people, including a large number of children and women.

The group without any experience in this field was able to gain a contract for 15 years of maintenance and operation of this bridge. Since the organization named Oreva Group did not have any expertise in the matter, they subcontracted the project to the Dev Prakash Solutions ation out of Dhrangadhra.firm based out of Dhrangadhra.

The Oreva Group is known to be working as a clock-maker. After about six months of repairs, the chairman of the Oreva Group, Jaysukh Patel had announced that the work is now complete. He said on October 24 that the bridge is safe and ready for tourists and that it will be opened to the public on the Gujarati New Year.

The police investigation that followed the tragedy revealed that the organization had spent only a tiny fraction of the total budget in the repairs. Hence the quality of materials used for the project was substandard compared to the quality needed for adding the strength to the British era suspension bridge. As per reports, only about Rs. 12 lakhs of the total allocated Rs. 2 Crores was actually utilized in the project.

Another report of the samples taken from the fallen bridge by the Forensic Science Laboratory proved the inadequate strength of the materials used.

Gujarat Police registered a FIR with charges of culpable homicide against agencies. The case was registered in Morbi under Indian Penal Code Sections 304 and Section 308.

The state government also suspended Morbi Municipality's Chief Officer Sandipsinh Zala regarding the same incident. And the resident Additional Collector of Morbi has been given the additional charge of the Chief Officer until any further orders from the higher authorities.

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