Morbi royal family proposes memorial for victims of Jhulto Pul bridge tragedy

The memorial for the victims of the 1979 Machchhu dam disaster is located near Mani Mandir on the bank of the Machchhu river in Morbi town. The dam breach, which swept away parts of Morbi town, had killed scores of people. Meerabapa said the collapse of the historic Jhulto Pul on October 30, 2022 was equally tragic. “It was equally tragic for us and it will be good if we have a place where we can remember them,” she said.

The Jhulto Pul was constructed by Vaghji Thakor, the then ruler of the erstwhile princely state of Morbi in 1887. The cable-stayed bridge was then an important utility facilitating the movement of people across the Machchhu river which flows from south to north and cuts through Morbi town. Later on, as motorable bridges were built across the river, the Jhulto Pul turned into a tourist attraction.

The bridge’s ownership was vested with the state government after Independence and subsequently it was transferred to the Morbi municipality after the civic body was formed in 1961. The municipality had handed the operations and maintenance of the bridge to Ajanta Manufacturing Private Limited (AMPL) of Oreva Group in March last year. The bridge collapsed just four days after AMPL managing director Jaysukh Patel threw it open to tourists on October 26, 2022 after months of repair and maintenance.

A case was registered under IPC sections 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 308 (attempt to commit culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and 114 (abettor present when offence is committed), and the police also added sections 336, 337 and 338 for negligent acts causing injuries and endangering human lives. Incidentally, the police filed a chargesheet against Patel and nine others in the bridge collapse case on Friday.

The royal family had expressed anguish over the tragedy which left 135 people dead – including at least 55 children – and had announced ex gratia of Rs 1 lakh to the kin of each victim.

The family also donated six bighas of land to the Morbi Rajput Samaj for constructing a community hall for the Kshatriya community of Morbi near the New Palace on the eastern bank of Machchhu river.