The tragedy in Morbi: The city, the river, and the bridge

This district is flanked by Kutch district in the north, Surendranagar district in the east, Rajkot district in the south, and Jamnagar district in the west.

Morbi is famous for its ceramic industry. The district is dotted by several hundred ceramic producing factories, mainly medium and small scale units. Around 70 per cent of India’s ceramics are produced in Morbi, and ceramic tiles manufactured here are exported to countries in the Middle East, East Asia, and Africa.

The yearly turnover of Morbi’s ceramic industry is Rs 50,000 crore and its yearly exports are worth around Rs 15,000 crore. The major competition to the Morbi ceramic industry comes only from China.

The river that flows through it

The town of Morbi is situated on the Machchhu River, 35 km from the sea and 60 km from Rajkot. It is the administrative headquarters of the district.

Machchhu is a small river that rises in the Madla Hills and flows 130 km into the Rann of Kutch. In 1979, a major tragedy occurred after a dam on the river failed, inundating Morbi town and killing a large number of people — some estimates put the number of dead at 25,000. A Gujarati film called Machchhu was made on the failure of the dam.

The ‘Jhulto Pul’ on the river

The suspension bridge, “Jhulto Pul”, was a pedestrian suspension bridge that was inaugurated in 1879, during the reign of Sir Waghji Ravaji, the Thakur Sahib of Morbi (1858-1922) Sir Waghji is credit with planning and building the entire city of Morbi, which included India’s first art deco palace, and a European-style central square known as Green Chowk.

The official website of Morbi district says the bridge spanned 233 metres, and was 1.25 metres wide. It connected Darbargarh Palace and Lakhdhirji Engineering College in the city. The bridge was a tourist attraction, and had long been hailed as a magnificent engineering marvel. The bridge was testimony to the “progressive and scientific nature of the rulers of Morbi”, according to the district website.

The suspension bridge had been closed for renovation two years ago, and was reopened to the public only on October 26, allegedly without carrying out a safety audit first.