It’s been more than three years since Hatkeshwar Bridge in Ahmedabad was closed for public use owing to structural dangers. Yet the Hatkeshwar Bridge is a crumbling testament to bureaucratic inertia and engineering failure. Built at a staggering cost of Rs 40 crore to connect Khokhra and CTM crossroads, the bridge was neither demolished nor reconstructed despite glaring safety alarms, repeated administrative promises, and qualified personnel in the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation to do the job.
Clearly, Gujarat hasn’t learned from the Morbi bridge collapse.
The 43-year-old bridge in Gujarat’s Vadodara collapsed on Wednesday, claiming several lives.
The bridge, constructed between 2015 and 2017 by Ajay Engineering Pvt Ltd (AIEPL), was inaugurated with fanfare in 2017. It had a defect liability of one year. Barely three years after opening, the bridge showed its first visible cracks. In 2022, it had been declared unsafe by laboratory tests conducted by IIT Roorkee, with SVNIT Surat also confirming its “poor quality.” The bridge was swiftly closed.
As media reports highlighted, back in April 2023, then AMC Commissioner M Thennarasan had announced that demolition was the only option. A report prompted immediate action: AIEPL and the Project Management Consultant, SGS India Pvt Limited, were blacklisted. Four AMC officials faced suspension, departmental inquiries were launched, and an FIR was lodged citing criminal conspiracy and fraud.
Despite these stern steps, the demolition and rebuilding process has spiralled into a farce. Since 2023, six tenders have been floated.
A senior Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation official revealed to a certain section of the media that this is the first time four bids have come in. He said that the demolition tender was reissued in June because only a single bid had been received earlier, and a decision on the current Rs 9 crore tender is expected this month pending approvals from the Standing Committee and the Roads and Buildings Committee. The work order, he added, would require the bridge to be dismantled from the pile cap bottom level within six months once awarded.
According to reports, Rajasthan-based Vishnu Prakash R Punglia Limited had responded to the fourth tender in August 2024, which was valued at Rs 51.7 crore. The firm, however, was disqualified after failing technical evaluation. Shockingly, the same company had quoted a bid of Rs 118 crore—more than double the tendered estimate.
A senior AMC official familiar with the tender process disclosed that even after the same firm issued four separate tenders for demolition and reconstruction, no satisfactory response was received. According to him, by the fourth round, though the conditions had been modified, issues in quoted rates meant no party was willing to shoulder the risk of carrying out the work.
The blame game has intensified. The Leader of Opposition in the AMC, Shehzad Khan Pathan, has launched scathing attacks against the ruling BJP, slamming them for incompetence and delay. He reportedly said that it had been 1,000 days since the bridge was closed, and the government had still failed to either demolish or rebuild it. He questioned how, with all the engineers and experts under AMC’s belt, such paralysis was possible in Ahmedabad—touted as a smart city—asking what hope there could be for villages if this is the urban standard.
The latest twist in this dragging saga is that the original contractor, AIEPL, is allegedly showing interest in taking back the project—a development that only adds to the absurdity surrounding this public infrastructure disaster.
The bridge symbolises the rot in civic planning where tenders pile up, decisions stall, and citizens remain at the mercy of crumbling concrete and broken promises.
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