New Delhi: The death toll from the collapse of a bridge in Gujarat yesterday has risen to 18, PTI cited Vadodara district magistrate Anil Dhameliya as saying late on Thursday (July 10) and adding that two people remain missing.

Five people injured by the incident are in stable condition and being discharged, Dhameliya had earlier said while speaking to the media.

A number of vehicles moving along the Mujpur-Gambhira bridge in central Gujarat early on Wednesday fell into the Mahisagar river below when a section of the structure collapsed.

Twelve bodies were recovered by Wednesday night and the toll increased to 17 on Thursday, Dhameliya had said in the evening.

Later in the day, PTI quoted him as saying that the toll climbed to 18 with the recovery of one more body at night.

“Removing trucks that were stuck in the mud was a very big challenge” on Thursday, the collector also said.

Meanwhile, chief minister Bhupendra Patel, who is also Gujarat's roads and buildings minister, suspended four engineers in connection with the collapse of the bridge.

The four, executive engineer N.M. Nayakawala, deputy executive engineers U.C. Patel and R.T. Patel, and assistant engineer J.V. Shah, were found responsible as per the findings of a preliminary investigation conducted by a team of experts in charge of preparing a report on the repairs and checks conducted on the bridge, a press release said.

“In addition, the chief minister has also given instructions to conduct an immediate and intensive inspection of other bridges in the state in the public interest,” added the release issued by Patel's office.

There have been reports of the bridge's deteriorating condition being flagged to the authorities as early as 2022.

Panchayat member Harshadsinh Parmar reportedly wrote a letter to the authorities about the bridge's worsening condition in 2022, while in a viral audio clip from the same year activist Lakhan Darbar is heard bringing up the state of the bridge with a roads and buildings official, who as per reports can be heard acknowledging that it was in poor shape.

However, executive engineer Nayakawala, who was suspended on Thursday, claimed while speaking to the press the previous day that an inspection of the bridge had revealed “no major damage”, per PTI.

Reports have also recalled that Wednesday's bridge collapse is part of a string of such incidents to have occurred in Gujarat over the last few years.

Prominent among them was the October 2022 collapse of a bridge in Morbi, which killed 141 people.

A special investigation team formed by the state government came to the conclusion that the incident was “a result of lapses at [the] administrative level to follow due procedure as per government norms, and also due to technical incompetency [sic] to repair the bridge and test it before opening it to the public”.

Three top officials of Morbi's municipality had failed to bring the agreement signed between the body and Oreva group for the maintenance, management and operation of the bridge before the municipality's general board, the SIT said in 2023 as per PTI.

The Wire is now on WhatsApp. Follow our channel for sharp analysis and opinions on the latest developments.