Peddar Rd caves in, again

At 11.30 pm on Wednesday, the Peddar Road stretch opposite singer Lata Mangeshkar’s Prabhu Kunj building collapsed.

At 11.30 pm on Wednesday, the Peddar Road stretch opposite singer Lata Mangeshkar’s Prabhu Kunj building collapsed.

HT Image

This is the third time since last July, soil corrosion and continuous seepage from the 240-metre long century-old storm water drain below the Peddar Road has caused a cave-in.

The municipal corporation immediately got to the job of fixing the around 1.2 km arterial road that connects south Mumbai to the suburbs.

“We started the repair work immediately after the incident by digging the road. The work is expected to be completed by Friday night,” said S V Joshi, chief engineer, Road Department.

According to a 2000 study, 70 per cent of the 94,000 cars that use the Haji Ali corridor every day use Peddar Road.

But Wednesday night’s cave-in didn’t affect traffic the next day.

On Thursday morning, two lanes were kept open for traffic as civic workers were fixing the road. And by evening, the north-bound traffic between Gamadia Road and Cabdury junction was diverted to Haji Ali.

“Last monsoon, the same road had caved in on two occasions due to leakage in the same storm water drain. One was near Jaslok Hospital and the other near Jindal House. Both were repaired overnight,” said a civic official, who was present on the site.

“There was a proposal to replace the drain but was held because of the proposed flyover plan,” added the official, requesting anonymity for lack of authorisation to talk to the media.

“After digging up the road, the BMC discovered a cavity about 10 meters long. The 2x2 ft drain was leaking and the seepage resulted in the cave-in.”

Last July, when the road had first collapsed on two occasions, the municipal corporation had announced that it would survey all storm water drain and sewage lines in the city.

But the survey is yet to begin.