Cave-in occurs on busy Shahnajaf road in Lucknow
A cave-in on Shahnajaf Road in Lucknow, near Sahara Ganj mall, raised safety concerns as traffic continued over the 6-foot-deep crater before repairs began.
A cave-in occurred on the Shahnajaf Road on Wednesday afternoon, right opposite the Sahara Ganj mall. The size of the crater was around 6-7 feet wide and around 5 to 6 feet deep, said an official of PWD.
The incident occurred just a few metres from the Jal Nigam office, on a stretch frequented daily by thousands of commuters. The road links key city intersections, including Sikanderbagh, KD Singh Babu Stadium, Hazratganj, and the old city, making it one of the busiest arteries in Lucknow.
Despite the location’s significance, no official teams were on-site till 3.20pm when the road began to sink. Traffic continued to flow over the damaged stretch, posing a serious risk to public safety. It was only after HT informed senior LMC officials and the zonal in-charge that the matter was taken seriously.
Within minutes of the alert, LMC teams reached the site and barricaded the affected area to prevent accidents.
Senior LMC officials later confirmed that the road falls under the PWD jurisdiction. Preliminary inspections suggested that a damaged sewer line caused the soil beneath the road to shift, resulting in the collapse. “Most cave-ins happening lately are due to underground pipeline and sewage issues,” said an LMC official on condition of anonymity.
When contacted around 4.18 pm, Jal Nigam executive engineer Athar Qadri admitted he had not yet visited the site. “I don’t think it’s due to a pipeline leakage. If it were, the cave-in would have been much wider and longer,” he claimed.
However, Satendra Nath, executive engineer of the PWD’s provincial division confirmed the road belongs to his department. “Our teams, along with Jal Nigam officials, have reached the site. A leakage seems to have caused the cave-in. Jal Nigam will carry out the necessary repairs, after which PWD will restore the road surface,” he said.
He added that the extent of the damage could not be determined immediately. “The size of the cave-in might increase once repair work begins,” Nath noted.
The incident once again raises questions over inter-departmental coordination and the preparedness of civic agencies in addressing infrastructure emergencies on time.
Earlier, on January 13, HT reported about a huge crater formed after a massive road cave-in near the Tedhi Puliya area of the state capital in the wee hours of Sunday. Officials from the Lucknow Municipal Corporation (LMC) and Jal Nigam identified a damaged sewer line as the cause of the cave-in.
