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Water pipeline bursts near Pragati Maidan; holds up traffic for hours, damages road
New Delhi
New Delhi
A water pipeline burst on the Bhairon Marg-Ring Road intersection near Pragati Maidan in central Delhi on Monday afternoon, bringing traffic to a standstill in and around the area.
The incident also damaged a section of the road and hampered an ongoing infrastructure project as water from the pipeline submerged the spot.
“The pipeline that burst carried treated effluents from Okhla to the NDMC area for irrigation purposes. It burst because the pipeline was old,” Dinesh Mohaniya, vice-chairman of water utility Delhi Jal Board (DJB), said.
“We have started repairing it and hopefully it will be fixed by tonight itself,” Mohaniya said.
The incident affected commuter movement on the busy road that connects east Delhi with central parts of the city. The traffic police said they had deployed their officials at the affected stretches to divert traffic.
While the measures helped prevent longer gridlocks near the spot where the pipeline burst, the diversions led to longer jams on the Barapullah Flyover and the Nizamuddin Bridge, which connects east Delhi and south and central Delhi, among others.
A senior official from the Public Works Department (PWD) said that “the entire section of Ring Road was submerged in water. A part of the road was also damaged, resulting in traffic jams.”
“This incident affected the ongoing construction of a tunnel beneath Pragati Maidan,” the official said.
A 1.2-kilometre tunnel is being constructed between Ring Road and Purana Qila Road as per the Pragati Maidan redevelopment project.
According to the PWD official, water from the pipeline entered the dug-up space of the tunnel. They have now started the process of pumping out the water from the project site.
Lalit Kumar, a motorist, took to Twitter to complain about how he was stuck at one point for nearly one-and-a-half hours.
Another motorist, Pratham Singh, said that he was stuck on the Barapullah Flyover for over 30 minutes as the jam stretched beyond two kilometres.
