Uttarakhand should also carry out extensive safety audit of all swinging bridges across state after Morbi tragedy says SDF chief !

Learning lesson from the Morbi tragedy that happened over Machchu river in Gujarat, the government of Uttarakhand should waste no time to renovate or repair its all swinging bridges under use in Uttarakhand and reactivate after due repairs all those bridges which are lying unrepaired Or defunct. This demand was made by none other than the SDC chairman of Dehradun, Uttarakhand Anoop Nautiyal. In his tweet he wrote : In the wake of the # MorbiBridge collapse, I urge Government of Uttarakhand to order an extensive safety audit of all bridges across state. With the end of monsoon season, this is an ideal time to conduct audit. The process should be meticulously planned with clear completion targets tweeted Anoop Nautiyal.

It may be recalled that there are hundreds of such unattended swinging bridges operating in Uttarakhand totally unattended on which villagers, school going children, senior citizens and women commute. These bridges are very old having become rusty, and unattended by technicians etc. After the huge Morbi tragedy over Machchu river killing 141 persons majority of them children, women and senior citizens, the Uttarakhand government should also get all it’s such swinging bridges especially the old ones rectified fully to ensure that no such tragedy occur in Uttarakhand in future. The bridges should also exhibit plates mentioning the capacity of such bridges restricting or mobilising people to strictly adhere to the rules to avoid these tragedies.

Kindly recall that the shuttering of a Narkota bridge under construction in Garhwal came down like pack of cards raising several questions in the credibility of engineers and contractors on the job. Just imagine had it collapsed after the bridge under use, what would have been the fate of the people commuting on it. Unfortunately corruption is always at the root of such man made disasters. In Morbi tragedy too while the fitness certificate was not issued to the operating company / Trust of the Bridge over Machchu river, it was closed for six months under repair. The renovation of the bridge was completed just seven days ago but fitness certificate not issued. It wasn’t therefore eligible for use and above that the bridge owning authorities distributed 500 tickets to the visitors costing each Rs fifty.

This picture below is of the dilapidated swinging bridge on Nayar river which is in extremely bad shape since the last twelve years. According to a report by a local journalist a swinging bridge known as Badlgola Jhuka pul in Kaljikhal development block is out of order for the last twelve years posing a direct threat to people’s lives. There have been umpteen complaints in this regard but no MLA or MP has, taken note of it. This is highly worrisome.