Ludhiana: Kot Mangal residents in a dismay as road swells up, manhole cover gets dislocated

The incident took place in the Kot Mangal area of the city which is 4 km away from Giaspura; around a 10-feet of the swelled-up portion led to huge cracks and dislocated the sewer cover from the manhole

Eleven days after the Giaspura gas leak tragedy that claimed 11 lives, an incident where a sewer cover was dislocated from the manhole after a major portion of the road around it swelled up several inches created panic among the residents. However, no one received any injury.

Gurmeet Singh Kular of the Federation of Commercial and Industrial Organisation said that the incident seems to have taken place due to sewage gases. (HT File Photo)

The incident took place in the Kot Mangal area of the city which is 4 km away from Giaspura. Around a 10-feet of the swelled-up portion led to huge cracks and dislocated the sewer cover from the manhole. The cemented road was built around six months ago.

The incident was reported at 2 pm on Thursday after which teams of different departments of the municipal corporation, building and roads branch and operation and maintenance cell, reached the spot. The portion of the road was dismantled afterwards and will be rebuilt, an MC official said. Simratpal Singh Kalsi, a local, who flagged the incident, said, “The vents on the roadside were clogged and a sewer cover was dislocated from the manhole that was repositioned by the residents.”

Road got damaged due to improper expansion joints: MC

MC joint commissioner-cum-zonal commissioner (Zone C) Kulpreet Singh stated that during the preliminary investigation, it has been found that the incident in the Kot Mangal Singh area took place due to improper expansion joints in the concrete road. The concrete slabs expanded due to rising temperature and cracks developed at the site due to improper expansion joints. Taking note of the issue, MC commissioner Shena Aggarwal stated that a detailed investigation will be done and required action will also be taken after looking into the findings of the investigation.

‘Incident highlights sorry state of sewerage system’

Relating the incident to the sorry state of the sewerage system in the city, members of the Ludhiana industry said the district administration and the municipal corporation should take this issue on priority.

Gurmeet Singh Kular of the Federation of Commercial and Industrial Organisation said that the incident seems to have taken place due to sewage gases.