The Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, traveled on Tuesday to the town of Morbi, in the state of Gurajat, where he visited some of those injured in the collapse of a suspension bridge in which more than 130 people lost their lives.
Likewise, Prime Minister Modi also went to the site of the incident and checked the condition of the bridge as well as the search and rescue operations still underway in the Machchhu river, according to ANI news agency.
However, Modi’s visit to the civil hospital in Morbi has aroused controversy because the facilities have been cleaned up before the arrival of the president, according to local media, which have published images of the cleaning works in the hospital.
According to NDTV television, the health facilities have undergone a remarkable «makeover» in the last few hours after employees worked through the night moving the wounded to the floors that were in the best condition.
The Indian Police have already arrested nine workers of the company Oreva, in charge of the renovation work on the suspension bridge that collapsed on Sunday in Morbi. The arrests have taken place as the company faces various charges of violating safety regulations.
Oreva allegedly left the technical aspects of the bridge renovation to a smaller company with an unknown track record, and proceeded to reopen the bridge five months ahead of schedule and without being certified by the authorities.
The services of this company were contracted last March and the bridge was reopened only five days ago, on October 26. However, the contract indicated that the bridge should be closed for at least eight months or a year to carry out the relevant maintenance work.
It appears that some of the older cables were not replaced in the bridge renovation, which may have affected its stability. However, Oreva’s managing director, Jaysukhbhai Patel, said that they had fully refurbished the structure on the opening day and predicted that it would hold up for about a decade.
Early indications from the investigation are that the bridge was designed to carry the weight of 125 people, far fewer than the 400 believed to have been on the platform at the time of the collapse.
Modi has pledged that he will «leave no ground unturned» in responding to and assisting the survivors, the injured and the families of the victims.
