Portion of Ashoka Road in Delhi caves in, repairs underway: PWD

The damaged area, located towards the roundabout close to the Le Meridian hotel, falls under the jurisdiction of New Delhi Municipal Council

A portion of the Ashoka Road in the heart of Lutyens Delhi caved in on Sunday and the repairs of the damaged section was underway late in the evening, a senior civic official on condition of anonymity said.

The sinkhole on Ashoka Road on Sunday. (PTI)

The damaged area, located towards the roundabout close to the Le Meridian hotel, falls under the jurisdiction of New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC).

A senior NDMC official on condition of anonymity said that there is an old sewer line of 1,200mm diameter, which passes under the road, was damaged and that led to the cave-in. “The old sewer line settled and started leaking, which led to soil erosion and a portion of the road got damaged. NDMC has initiated filling work and remedial measures, but the damaged section of the pipeline will have to be replaced for permanent relief. Maintenance teams with an excavator have been deployed on the spot, and the repair work will go on overnight,” the official added.

The NDMC official said that marshals will be deployed in coordination with the Delhi Traffic Police to guide the traffic. “The damaged section is close to the roundabout. So, the lanes on the Ashoka Road will not be closed, but traffic movement will slow down near the roundabout,” the official added.

A traffic police official on condition of anonymity said that adequate personnel have been deployed to manage the traffic on the stretch especially, during the evening hours when the movement will increase on this stretch, which connects the India Gate.

A large section of the C-Hexagon near the India Gate also caved in near the National Gallery of Modern Art in July last year, leading to traffic disruptions for two days. The cause behind the road damage was also attributed to old leaking sewage line. A large section of the Ashoka Road had also caved in July 2020 due to leaking sewer lines.

A second NDMC official on condition of anonymity said that several of the sewer lines of NDMC were laid down before the Independence and need to be replaced. “We are taking up the upgradation work in phases. The old brick barrel lines will also be rehabilitated. The repair at Ashoka Road may take multiple days,” the official added.

The incidents of such road cave-in increase during the monsoons. Recently, a series of cave-ins were reported in Sangam Vihar, where the Delhi Jal Board’s sewer line laying work was recently carried out, trapping many water tankers and vehicles. Experts attribute such cave-ins to several factors, including bad road laying techniques — when the road layers and soil underneath are not properly consolidated and compacted during the construction process; damage to water or sewer lines beneath roads due to which the water seeps in, the lower sub-layer becomes soft; and depletion of the groundwater table that makes the soil beneath roads hollow.