Rusty cables, broken anchor pins, and loose bolts were among the lapses that were not addressed while renovating the suspension bridge in Morbi which collapsed last month into the Machchhu river killing 135 people, as per a preliminary probe by the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL).
Several Indian states bordering Pakistan have implemented stringent security measures, including school closures, blackouts, and cancellation of leave for police and administrative personnel, in response to escalating tensions between India and Pakistan. These measures were taken after India conducted airstrikes on terror infrastructure in Pakistan in retaliation for the April 22 Pahalgam massacre. Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat, and West Bengal have all implemented these precautionary measures.
Adani Ports and JSW Infrastructure, India's leading private port operators, are expanding their logistics services to capture extra cargo while they run integrated transport services. "With incrementally less availability of lucrative port assets that can drive cargo volumes, port operators have naturally shifted their focus on deriving value in the upstream integration, i.e., the logistics space.
Morbi has evolved from scratch to the second largest tile manufacturing cluster in the world in just 18 years.
While rain intensity reduced on Tuesday compared to a day ago, affecting mainly districts in the Saurashtra region, administration carried out rescue and relief operations on a large scale, shifting thousands of people to shelters.
Rain-related incidents claimed nine more lives in Gujarat, taking the death toll to 16 in two days, while another 8,500 people were relocated and rescued from flood-affected areas with rains continuing to lash some parts of the state for the fourth consecutive day on Wednesday, officials said.
Campaigning for the first phase of the Gujarat assembly elections to be held on December 1 ended at 5 pm on Tuesday.
A 42-year-old tantrik arrested for allegedly conspiring to murder a businessman died in police custody in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, after confessing to killing 12 people by giving them drinks laced with sodium nitrite. Navalsinh Chavda was arrested on December 3 and died on Sunday after falling ill. Police are investigating his occult practices and possible involvement in human sacrifices.
'Every year, the marble industry is shrinking due to tiles. It has already decreased by 20-25 per cent in recent years.'
The victim, Nilesh Dalsaniya, lodged a complaint, based on which Morbi city's 'A' division police on Thursday registered a first information report (FIR) against the woman, identified as Vibhuti Patel aka Raniba, and others including her brother Om Patel and manager Parikshit, said Pratipalsinh Zala, Deputy Superintendent of Police (SC/ST Cell).
Gokhale on December 1 tweeted a news clipping about information purportedly obtained through the Right to Information claiming that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Morbi after the bridge collapse cost Rs 30 crore.
The more than a century-old bridge in Morbi caved on Sunday when it was crammed with people.
India recorded around 16 per cent more rainfall than normal in August, with rainfall over Northwest India recorded at 253.9 mm, the second highest in August since 2001, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Saturday.
The prime minister further alleged that the work of Congress while in power was mere pretentiousness.
According to media reports, around 500 people were on the suspension bridge when it caved in.
The administration is geared up for more showers as the India meteorological department has warned of heavy to very heavy rains with isolated extremely heavy rains in several districts of the state till Thursday morning.
Some youths started shaking the bridge intentionally, making it difficult for people to walk.
The cyclone will make a landfall at around 9:00 pm to 10:00 pm on Thursday
There was a rush of people on the bridge, which was reopened for the public just four days ago following the renovation work, when it snapped around 6.30 pm, officials said.
The Gujarat high court on Monday refused regular bail to Trinamool Congress (TMC) spokesperson Saket Gokhale in a case related to alleged misuse of money collected through crowd-funding.
It will also be the third cyclone to hit the western state in June since 1965, the meteorological office said.
The statue is the second of the four statues being built in the four directions across the country.
The game zone had fire safety equipment but action taken to control the fire was not sufficient, leading to the tragedy on Saturday, a senior police officer said on Sunday, a day after the tragedy.
When the Bharatiya Janata Party's Mukesh Dalal was declared elected unopposed to the Lok Sabha from Surat on Monday, he became the first candidate to achieve the feat from Gujarat since its formation 64 years ago though the erstwhile state of Saurashtra saw a similar instance in 1951.
One of the teams rescued two lion cubs that had fallen into an open well in Jasadhar Range of Gir East division during the cyclone's landfall on Thursday evening, the official said.
A total of 788 candidates are in the fray in the first phase of the elections on 89 seats spread across 19 districts of South Gujarat and Kutch-Saurashtra regions.
The Opposition party also sought financial and medical assistance from the government to all those affected.
Officials in coastal Devbhumi Dwarka said around 1,300 people have been shifted to safer places so far.
The rains were being caused due to a cyclonic circulation lying over north east Arabian sea and adjoining Saurashtra and Kutch regions, the IMD said in its bulletin.
The India Meteorological Department has said that the landfall process of Cyclone 'Biparjoy' has started in Saurashtra and Kutch regions of Gujarat. The landfall process will carry on till midnight with wind speeds reaching a maximum of 140 kilometres per hour, the IMD said.
Gujarat has registered a voter turnout of 64.33 per cent for the recently-concluded elections to 182 assembly seats, a drop of more than 4 per cent as compared to the turnout registered in the 2017 polls.
The very severe cyclonic storm 'Biparjoy' intensified into an 'extremely severe cyclonic storm' and is likely to cross Saurashtra-Kutch and adjoining Pakistan coasts around the afternoon of June 15 as a 'very severe cyclonic storm (VSCS)', the India Meteorological Department said on Sunday.
The cyclone is expected to make landfall on Thursday evening as a 'very severe cyclonic storm' with maximum wind speed reaching up to 150 kilometres per hour, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.
The state government has begun preparations to deal with the fallout of the cyclone as it will bring very strong wind and heavy rainfall in the region, officials said.
Heavy waterlogging was witnessed in several towns and cities, while roads were closed in rural areas on Friday morning due a heavy spell.
The recent bridge collapse in Morbi in which 135 people were killed may have an impact on BJP's electoral fortunes.
A total of 33 teams have been earmarked by the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) to undertake relief and rescue operations in Gujarat and Maharashtra ahead of the expected landfall of cyclone 'Biparjoy' near the Jakhau port in Kutch district, officials said on Wednesday.
A reference to Morbi bridge collapse of Gujarat was on Friday made inside the Bihar assembly by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar who alleged that states not ruled by Bharatiya Janata Party got an unfair portrayal in the media.
Stocks of the country's bigger tile and ceramic makers were major gainers over the past week. The leaders in this space -- Kajaria Ceramics and Cera Sanitaryware -- were up 7 per cent each. In the past three months, Kajaria Ceramics and Somany Ceramics were up 29-32 per cent, while Cera Sanitaryware gained 22 per cent.
