Rescue teams are searching the area filled with blocks of concrete and iron in the Vadodara district, and days have passed since a tragic event, which took 20 lives, occurred due to the collapse of a bridge in Gujarat. Padhiyar, a resident of the Narsinghpur village in the Anand district and a worker of a private company, was reported to be one who died on Wednesday when part of the 4-decade-old bridge at Gambhira village crumbled and his car fell into the Mahisagar river.
The officials said that the search operation is undertaken upstream and downstream of the Mahisagar River since its tidal nature subjects the water to flow to the Wahara creek on high tide and towards the sea on low tide. Rubber boats and specialized equipment have been examined by search teams all over the area, and the trash from small vehicles has already been salvaged.
The big-scale operation includes the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), and other agencies. Other than the Padhiyar, the officials are exploring that there may be more people who got trapped under the heavy concrete slab, which fell into the river.
On Saturday, in addition to the police investigation site, teams from the Forensic Science Laboratory and the Regional Transport Office were also sent there to inspect the scene.
Brushing away the incident, Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel has issued a rapid response by suspending four engineers belonging to the Roads and Buildings Department of the state. Also, it has launched a probe at a high level under the same department, and a detailed report is estimated to come in 30 days.
State Minister Rushikesh Patel has noted that among the 7,000 bridges surveyed within the state of Gujarat, some of them have been identified to need urgent repair or reconstruction. The tragedy has also caused reinvigorated attention on the safety and condition of aging infrastructure in the state.
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