HYDERABAD: Exposing the substandard laying of roads, a recently laid BT road in Shapurnagar caved in on Friday morning leading to the formation of a huge crater. This is not an isolated case. In the last five months, at least three roads have similarly caved in. This has been happening despite warnings from MAUD Minister KT Rama Rao, who has been urging officials to monitor the quality of material used by contractors while laying roads.
On Friday morning, vendors and shopkeepers sprung into action to warn motorists and arranged temporary barricades. Thousands of commuters were diverted through other routes. Later, traffic police too were deployed to regulate the vehicular movement. They diverted the vehicles and informed officials of the water board and Megha Engineering & Infrastructures Ltd, the private contractors who laid the roads.
While experts found that the cave-in was caused due to water leakage at the spot, there were two pipelines running underground — one of the water board and other of MEIL — and it could not be identified as to which one was damaged. “The road caved in as the drinking pipeline was damaged which led to a continuous flow of water below the surface. The engineering department officials are working to close caved road,” said K Bhaskar, deputy general manager of HMWSSB. “We have not started supply of water from Shapurnagar reservoir. How can water leak from our pipeline? We are not at fault,” said Shankar Rao, Project Manager of MEIL.