Promoters of firms, govt engineers among 8 arrested over Mandvi water tank collapse

The injured have been identified as Anguriben Odh (37), her daughter Anjali (4), and Kalitaben Vachaliya (22).

The police arrested Babu Ambalal Patel, 61, Jasminbhai Babubhai Patel, 32, from Babulal Ambalal Patel firm; Jayanti Ambalal Patel, 61, Dhaval Ratilal Patel from Jayanti Super Constructions Pvt ltd; Babulal Manilal Patel, 63, from the PMC MaRS Planning and Engineering Services Pvt ltd; PMC site supervisor from Surat, Jigar Ravji Prajapati, 34; Executive Engineer with the Gujarat Water Supply and Sewerage Board (GWSSB) Ankit Garasiya, 42, a resident of Bhatar in Surat, and Deputy Executive Engineer Jay Chaudhary.

Garasia and Chaudhary have also been suspended.

The accused from the construction firms are originally from Mehsana, while the PMC promoter is from Patan.

The FIR said, “The PMC team failed to check the quality of work. The Executive Engineer and Deputy Executive Engineer had also failed to check the work done as per the prescribed plan and showed negligence in their duties. The officials’ negligence and poor quality of work done by contractor firms with the help of the PMC firm resulted in the collapse of the overhead water tank, causing grievous injuries to three people. The incident also caused a loss of huge revenue to the state government, and tarnished its image.”

The 15-metre-high 9-lakh-litre capacity overhead water tank was built on a plot of government land at an estimated cost of Rs 21 crore. It was supposed to supply water to 35 villages of Mandvi and Kamrej talukas of Surat district.

Mandvi Police Inspector C B Chauhan said, “We have launched a probe based on a complaint. We are collecting the project-related documents from the GWSSB.”

A day after the incident, the Mandvi Police had registered a case against five accused under BNS sections 316(5) (criminal breach of trust), 318(4) (cheating), 125(a) (whoever does any act so rashly or negligently as to endanger human life or personal safety of others), and 54 (abettor who is physically present when the offence is committed).

What locals say

Salim Nakhuda, 55, a sugarcane farmer, was at his home in Tadkeshwar village of Surat district on Monday afternoon when he heard a loud blast and thought that it was an earthquake. “I thought it was an earthquake and I came out of my house and found people leaving their houses,” he tells The Indian Express. A kilometre away from where Nakhuda was, the 15-metre high overhead water tank built on government land had crashed within minutes during the strength test, flooding the neighbouring areas.
Nakhuda’s first sigh of relief was that he had harvested all the sugarcane in his field. “Water entered my agricultural land and others nearby. The villagers did not suffer any loss due to the water gushing into the fields. Now, with the sunny weather conditions, we hope the water will dry up soon. The biggest relief was that our standing crop was harvested,” he told The Indian Express.