E-Paper
Tricity roads turn into death traps & it’s only the start of monsoon
A 25-year-old BPO employee sustained injuries early Monday morning after a road caved-in at the Sector 47 and 48 T-point and swallowed his two-wheeler around 4.30 am. The road, he said, was poorly lit besides being inundated with water
Monsoon has only begun but tricity roads have already started collapsing, exposing glaring lapses in road construction and maintenance, besides the administrative will to ensure commuters’ safety. Case in point: A 25-year-old BPO employee sustained injuries early Monday morning after a road caved-in at the Sector 47 and 48 T-point and swallowed his two-wheeler around 4.30 am. The victim, identified as Aditya Thapa, barely escaped as the cave-in, estimated to be about 15-20 feet deep, had happened on a poorly lit stretch.
Thapa said he was returning home after his night shift in Mohali when the incident occurred. “It was raining, and I was returning from my shift. The stretch was dark, and the ditch looked like it was part of the road. I couldn’t see it. I just drove in and suddenly dropped down. I managed to jump clear, but my bike fell inside.” He suffered an injury to his left knee, and his bike was pulled out by a fire team hours later.
Meanwhile, the UT administration and the municipal corporation are passing the buck. Chief engineer CB Ojha said, “The road, which is maintained by the UT engineering department, caved-in due to bursting of a storm pipe, which is maintained by MC. The civic body is now repairing it.”
MC officials, not willing to be named, said, the cause of the cave-in is yet to be ascertained and they are getting it checked.
3rd cave-in at same spot on Airport Road in 3 yrs
Another cave-in was reported on a portion of the Airport Road, dividing Sectors 67 and 80, on Monday. This is the third such cave-in at the exact same spot in the last three years, bringing to surface the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA) and Mohali MC’s lackadaisical attitude. Similar incidents were reported here in July 2023 and September 2022 too.
The latest cave-in – measuring approximately 10 to 12 ft, with the subsoil beneath the road completely washed away, is said to have been caused by the collapse of the underlying sewerage and drainage systems.
Similar reports of road surface damage and crater formation have emerged from Phase V, 3B2, 3-A, Phase IX, Phase XI, Sector 69, Sector 71, and Mataur village as well.
MC commissioner Parminder Singh said, “I have directed the officer concerned to carry out immediate repairs and asked for a detailed report to determine why this is happening year after year.”
GMADA chief engineer Anuj Sehgal said, “Since the stormwater and sewerage pipelines are now maintained by the MC, we have informed them about the issue and it’s now under their purview.”
