For the last three weeks, a chemical tanker has been precariously dangling on a fragment of the collapsed section of Mujpur-Gambhira bridge in Vadodara – a grim reminder of the tragedy that left 21 people, a number of them on their way to work, dead on July 9.
On Friday night, though, work began to remove the heavy vehicle from the accident site.
Given the vulnerable state of the bridge, the authorities have sought help from a Porbandar-based marine salvage firm in this regard.
Closely associated with the Indian Coast Guard, the company is planning to deploy equipment used for ship launching and lifting vessels in shallow water for inspection.
Officials said the equipment, including pneumatic roller bags, hydraulic strand jacks and horizontal cantilevers, will be deployed at a distance from the site given that the “strength and stability” of the entire bridge structure is compromised.
The task is going to take a few more days, authorities in Anand said, expressing hope that the tanker will be retrieved and handed over to its owner by next week, on Thursday.
Anand District Collector Praveen Chaudhary told The Indian Express that a company called Marine Emergency Response Centre, Vishwakarma, has been roped in to assist in salvaging the tanker, which has been leaning over a 50-metre drop from the slab level of the remaining structure of the bridge.
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Experts from the company that arrived in Anand district on Friday, began preparing to install salvage equipment to be able to pull out the tanker from the bridge, said officials.
Chaudhary said, “The company has explained to us that it will deploy pneumatic roller bags (marine airbags), which are used for ship launching and lifting vessels in shallow water for inspection. The experts will place the heavy duty rubber bags under the truck to lift it up from its current tilting position. An engineered horizontal cantilever will be used to steer the vehicle in alignment to the bridge and a horizontal driven strand jack will be used for the calibrated pulling of the truck from the spot…”
Officials said the tanker, which was being used to transport Hydrochloric Acid, had been left untouched so far since rescue operations were underway under the collapsed segment. The contents of the vehicle, though, had been emptied out.
Following several petitions by the owner of the vehicle, Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, earlier this week, had ordered the administration to retrieve the vehicle and hand it over to the owner.
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Meanwhile, a Special investigation Team (SIT) of the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) has been formed to probe the assets of the four engineers of the Roads & Buildings (R&B) department as well as a retired official, who were suspended following the collapse of the Mujpur-Gambhira bridge on July 9. The SIT will include Joint Director Makrand Chauhan, Deputy Director, ACB, PH Bhesania as well as four police inspectors of the anti-graft agency.
As many as 21 persons were killed when the bridge collapsed on the morning of July 9. A segment of the bridge fell into the Mahisagar river, taking down two trucks, as many pick-up vans, an auto-rickshaw and at least three motorcycles with it.
Of the 21 deceased persons, bodies of only 20 were recovered by teams of the fire department as well as SDRF and NDRF while one body is yet to be found. Three persons survived the incident with injuries.