MB Road took just 6 months to cave in

NEW DELHI: This stretch of Mehrauli-Badarpur (MB) Road has been relaid, dense carpeted and repaired thrice in the past one-and-a-half years. Only  six months ago, the PWD carpeted one lane on the extreme left on the Badarpur-Mehrauli carriageway between Karni Singh Shooting Range and Batra Hospital after DJB laid a deep-water pipeline. However, it took only one night of continuous rain for the road to cave in at two places. Officials now fear more stretches could give way in the next few days. 

While PWD has moved man and machinery to carry out repairs, the incident is likely to spark off a blame game between PWD and DJB. Traffic personnel manning the stretch have been facing the worst and for the past two days, commuters have been facing massive snarls at these choke-points.

The major cave-in close to the Tughlaqabad traffic intersection has eaten up almost two lanes of the three-lane carriageway. PWD officials claimed they were pressing hard to complete the WBM work by Saturday evening and traffic would be allowed by Sunday morning provided there is no heavy rain. Metal carpeting would be done later.

They alleged that DJB didn't carry out the work of laying a pipeline 12 feet below the carriageway and filling it up `perfectly', which has resulted in the crisis. "We had charged the restoration amount only for dense carpeting. We suspect there was water leakage on this stretch, which contributed to the cave-in. DJB officials who visited the site are also clueless,'' PWD officials claimed.

PWD had dug up the road for laying a stormwater drain in 2008 and recarpeted the stretch at a cost of Rs 5.5 crore using recycling technology. Four months later, DJB started laying the water pipeline and dug up the same portion. 

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