The number of dead has increased to 18 in the incident of the collapse of a bridge over the Mahisagar river in Vadodara district of Gujarat. The officers provided this information. Five vehicles, including two trucks, two cars and a rickshaw, fell into the river when the bridge broke. The search and rescue operations have been started again for the third consecutive time on Friday at the scene.
Anil Dhelia reached the spot again on Friday morning and took stock of the situation. The search and rescue operations at the scene have been started once again on Friday. The teams of NDRF and SDRF are searching for missing people, but due to heavy silt (mud) in the rain and the river, there is a hindrance.
Anil Dhelia said that the day before, we had recovered 12 bodies. Yesterday we recovered six more bodies. Five living victims are undergoing treatment and their condition is stable. The remaining bodies are trapped under a slab and efforts are on to remove them. In the middle of the river, QuickSand has a 3-4 meter layer … soda ash is being released into water, causing the rescue team to irritate and itching. A tanker of sulfuric acid is trapped inside, so we are sure that it does not exit.
The teams of NDRF and SDRF are running a search operation up to four kilometers in the river. Apart from the three known missing people, others may also go missing, as there is no information available in a car and a mini truck involved in vehicles falling in the river. These vehicles were trapped in the swamp.
According to District Magistrate Dhelia, the rescue team is being obstructed in searching the missing people due to continuous rains and mud in the river. A special bridge is being constructed on the shore to get closer to vehicles submerged in the middle of the river. Meanwhile, a team of senior officials of the Road and Building Department reached the spot on Thursday morning for a high -level investigation.
Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, while taking action on the Vadodara bridge accident, suspended four engineers of the State Road and Building Department. Chief Minister Patel has this department. The state government had asked experts to prepare a report on the repair, inspection and quality check done on the bridge. On the basis of this report, it was decided to suspend Executive Engineer NM Nayakwala, Deputy Executive Engineer UC Patel and RT Patel and Assistant Engineer JV Shah.