The Gujarat High Court has ordered The Oreva Group, the clock manufacturing firm responsible for maintaining the Morbi suspension bridge that collapsed in October last year and resulted in the death of 135 people, to pay an interim compensation of Rs 10 lakh to the family of each victim and Rs 2 lakh to each injured person within four weeks.
During the hearing, Advocate KR Koshti, who represented the victims, had said that several families have lost their bread-winning members, and many children and women were left to fend for themselves, following the tragedy. On Tuesday, the Ajanta Manufacturing Ltd (Oreva Group) had offered to pay Rs 5 lakh compensation to the family of those who died and Rs 1 lakh to the injured persons. However, Chief Justice Sonia Gokani who was on the bench with Justice Sandeep Bhatt noted that this is not enough.
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According to the court's order, the company has also offered to take responsibility for seven children who were orphaned in the tragedy. The bench had earlier made it clear that Oreva's offer of compensation "will not absolve it of any liability".
Investigation so far
A special investigation team (SIT) was appointed by the Gujarat government. After its initial investigation, it has concluded that the collapse of the suspension bridge in Morbi was caused by corrosion on almost half of the wires on a cable and the use of a combination of old and new suspenders, which were welded together. The SIT reached these conclusions after examining the evidence and carrying out an investigation into the causes of the tragedy.
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The suspension bridge had two main cables and one of the cables, which was constructed by the previous rulers in 1887 over the river Machchhu, had significant issues with corrosion. The SIT determined that nearly half of the wires in this cable "may be already broken" even before the cable snapped on the evening of October 30.
"It was observed that out of the 49 wires (of that cable), 22 were corroded, which indicates that those wires may have already broken before the incident. The remaining 27 wires recently broke," the SIT said in its report.
Police have arrested 10 accused, including Oreva Group's MD Jaysukh Patel, under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 308 (attempt to commit culpable homicide), 336 (act which endangers human life), 337 (causing hurt to any person by doing any rash or negligent act) and under 338 (causing grievous hurt by doing rash or negligent act).
(With inputs from PTI)
