The 15-year contract of Oreva Group that carried out “full and final” repairs on Morbi’s British-era suspension footbridge did not have a safety clause.
The contract of maintenance, operation and security of the suspension bridge did not have two things, a clause mandating that the company needs to obtain a fitness certificate, and a provision to get it from the municipality, according to The Times of India.
The debate about Oreva’s contract has grown after the bridge collapsed a few days earlier, killing at least 135 people.
It was further revealed that even the Morbi municipality had never taken a fitness certificate when it managed the bridge till 2007, defense attorney DP Shukla submitted to the court of the chief judicial magistrate on Saturday, TOI reported. This comes after a plea to further remand two Oreva managers, Deepak Parekh and Dinesh Dave was rejected by the court.
Police had arrested nine people, including maintenance contractors of the bridge. An FIR on charges of culpable homicide against agencies given the task of maintenance and operation of the bridge.
The case was registered in Morbi under Indian Penal Code Sections 304 (punishment for culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and 308 (attempt to commit culpable homicide), police said.
Before this, another probe had revealed that the Oreva Group has reportedly spent only Rs 12 lakh, or six per cent, of the allotted Rs 2 crore.
A police probe into the renovation has revealed that the company spent a fraction of what was required to strengthen the rickety bridge.
The findings are in line with that of the Forensic Science Laboratory, which found that there was no sign of the structure getting anything beyond basic repairs, TOI said.
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