10-ft ditch forms as road caves in
The monsoons aren’t even here yet, and the roads in the city have already started crumbling.
The monsoons aren’t even here yet, and the roads in the city have already started crumbling.
On Saturday morning, a low-floor Delhi Transport Corporation bus fell into a 10-foot deep ditch when the road caved in. The incident occurred in East Delhi’s Geeta Colony area at 9.30 am.
However, no one was injured in the accident.
“The bus, plying on route number 39 between Jheel and Jai Mata Market, fell into a ditch and its rear wheel got stuck,” a senior Delhi Police officer on condition of anonymity as he was not authorised to speak to the media.
“At first the bus conductor Suresh Kumar thought it was a flat tyre, but when he got down to investigate further, he discovered the crater under the wheel,” he added.
Passengers claim the crater was four feet deep, but the weight of the bus enlarged it to ten feet. There were around 40 passengers in the bus when the incident took place. No case has been registered so far.
The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), which maintains the road, was quick to blame the incident on the increasing traffic volume.
“Too much load on the road causes the surface to erode, leading to such cave-ins. The roads are constructed keeping in mind a certain amount of traffic which has been increasing over the years, so obviously the road will crumble,” said a senior MCD official.
However, experts say poor drainage system is one of the biggest reasons for such road cave-ins.
Another road cave-in incident was reported from Rajouri Garden area on Saturday as well.
Last year, during monsoon, several incidents of roads crumbling were reported from areas such as Defence Colony, Vikaspuri, Okhla, and Pitampura, Dhaula Kuan, Ashram and Kalindi Kunj due to waterlogging and poor drainage system.