A 100-feet stretch of the Panchkula-Morni road, near Thana village in Morni block, caved-in on Tuesday, cutting off nearly 150 villages of the block.
The road which was running through a mountain was caving in slowly for some days due to frequent rain in the area. It caved in completely around 4am on Tuesday.
As the condition of the road was precarious for the last some days, officials of the public works department (PWD) were stationed there, who used to fill the depression on the road to level it out. They had the apprehension that the road would cave in completely, which eventually did happen. After the incident, top officials of the PWD were called to the spot. Executive engineer Vikas Surjewala, naib tehsildar Darpan Kamboj and police officials reached there.
What next
A permanent road cannot be constructed at the same place as the level of the area has gone down. "It could be used only on temporary basis after the earth filling but that will take 2-3 days," Kamboj said.
Now, the PWD is thinking of making a new road through the nearby hill, which will take at least 20 days. "The road was caving-in slowly for some days and it was damaged completely. We have already started work for constructing the new road," Surjewala said.
Commuters inconvenienced
As the road has been wiped out, buses are dropping passengers on one side of the road. Then they cross over the mountain to reach the other side and take the bus waiting there. A passenger, Pritam Singh, said he first climbed the mountain to go to the Panchkula side, performed his duty for the whole day and now have to climb it again to reach home.
Commuters inconvenienced
As the road has been wiped out, buses are dropping passengers on one side of the road. Then they cross over the mountain to reach the other side and take the bus waiting there. A passenger, Pritam Singh, said he first climbed the mountain to go to the Panchkula side, performed his duty for the whole day and now have to climb it again to reach home.
A family from Hisar, which had to urgently pick documents from a Morni village, did not know that the road has caved-in and had to take the Raipur Rani route to reach their destination.
The bus passengers have to cross over the mountain to catch the bus but those having personal vehicles have to take the Raipur Rani route to reach Panchkula city. The distance between the affected area and Panchkula is 30 km and from Raipur Rani to Panchkula they have to travel 30 km more.
Those coming from the Panchkula side also have to take the same route of Raipur Rani.