Road caves in at busy Iffco Chowk on Delhi-Gurgaon expressway

A sizeable chunk of road on the Delhi-Gurgaon expressway at the busy Iffco Chowk crossing gave way on Thursday morning, after two days of torrential rain and subsequent waterlogging across the city.

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After the matter came to the notice of NHAI and police officials, the damaged portion of road was immediately cordoned off around 9.30am and repair work started by the contractor around an hour later.

Officials said around 700 sqft area of road was damaged due to the depression and it has been temporarily repaired. The is the second incident of road cave in at Iffco Chowk, the earlier incident having happened in August 2019. In 2019, a section of road along the L-shaped underpass on MG road had caved-in after heavy rain hit the city. The sidewalls of the underpass from Iffco Chowk to Mehrauli were damaged and it then took around two days for the contractor and authorities to repair the stretch.

NHAI officials on Wednesday said that the damage at Iffco Chowk could have been worse. But the situation was saved partly because most of the rainwater from Aravallis — that in the past has caused damage and waterlogging at various stretches at NH8, including Iffco Chowk — this time collected mostly at Golf Course Road underpasses and heavy damage was prevented in areas downstream . “The damage at Iffco Chowk was caused due to waterlogging at a spot where large power transmission towers stood earlier. The towers were removed for construction of this road. Heavy digging was carried out at this spot and it seems that stagnation of water caused the depression. We have made initial repairs and stopped movement of vehicles,” said Vikas Mittal, manager, NHAI, who reached Iffco Chowk in the morning.

As per officials, the affected stretch has been cordoned off and repaired temporarily by the contractor. “We have removed the road surface and dug the damaged area after which repair was done using construction material . The damaged portion of the road shall be repaired in a proper manner, when the rain subsides,” said Prem Kumar, an official of Gawar Constructions, who was overseeing the repair.

Ashok Sharma, project director, NHAi said that two small portions of the road, measuring 10x 8 metres and 6x8 metres respectively, caved in due to ingress of water. “The cave-in happened in an area where earlier there were electrical HT 220kv towers, which were later shifted, the area dug up and the road constructed. The cave in has been repaired and the affected area was barricaded,” he said, adding that the road will be made motorable by evening.

Sharma also.said that NHAI resumed traffic at the Medanta underpass on Thursday around 11 am. “We had cleared the underpass of water on Wednesday evening but in consultation with civic agencies started traffic on Thursday morning,” he added.