Freshly laid roads start caving in, PWD feigns ignorance

The landscaping of pavements and laying of roads ahead of the Commonwealth Games, in October, may have been a long drawn and exhausting process but the effort has been in vain at some locations.

The landscaping of pavements and laying of roads ahead of the Commonwealth Games, in October, may have been a long drawn and exhausting process but the effort has been in vain at some locations.

HT Image

Case in point are the pavement that runs along the August Kranti Marg, close to the Siri Fort Sports Complex that will host squash and badminton tournaments, and a service lane in Soami Nagar.

At many places, the pavement has started caving in with a large area opposite the Siri Fort Auditorium being completely destroyed.

“The government has spent so much money on the landscaping of these projects but it has failed to ensure that the work was carried out in a proper manner. The pavement started caving in even before the rains,” said R.D. Lamba, who lives in Hauz Khas.

The newly laid tiles have started to come off at many places. Special tiles that were placed around trees to save them from drying up have also started chipping and breaking.

The Public Works Department (PWD) that is responsible for the landscaping denied the cave-ins. “We have not heard about any cave-in on the August Kranti Marg. At some places cables are being laid and that’s why they have been dug up,”said Dinesh Kumar, chief engineer, South, PWD. However, no cables are being laid at the site so far.

Many in the area are blaming the cars parked on the pavements for the cave-in. “The residents of the area park their cars on the pavements and this leads to cave-ins,” said Ram Prasad, a labourer at the site.

"We will install permanent barricades on the pavement soon to ensure that no cars are parked there," Kumar said.

At Soami Nagar a service lane has been laid three times in 15 days. PWD officials blame this on the Delhi Jal Board (DJB). “We have experienced some problems with the new pipe lines that have been laid by the DJB. The roads where these have been laid keep caving in and that is why we had to re-lay the service lane," Kumar said.