BENGALURU: Two days after an under-construction Metro pillar crushed a woman and her toddler-son to death in HBR Layout, a big sinkhole developed on Thursday in front of Brigade Towers at Vellara Junction in Shanthala Nagar, injuring a biker, where the BMRCL is allegedly carrying out tunnelling works.
Puneeth, the biker, sustained superficial injuries and received first-aid. The Ashok Nagar traffic police said Puneeth was rushed to a private hospital at Richmond Town and was discharged. At around 1.15 pm, the incident occurred, only a km away from the BBMP head office.
“As traffic began piling up after the incident, we barricaded the sinkhole, and put up caution tape diverting the traffic,” a traffic police officer said.
BMRCL MD Anjum Parwez asked the engineers to conduct a penetration test 20m around the spot and asked the traffic police to close down the road till Friday morning. Speaking to TNIE, Parwez said the Tunnel Boring Machines passed the stretch five days ago and when the process was on, the machine encountered granite and did not find any water leakage, and two-and-a-half metres above the machine, there was only granite. “Engineers have been asked to find the cause of the sinkhole. We have filled the sinkhole with concrete and sealed it”.
He contended that the photographs he received shows that there is only granite rock (below the sinkhole) and water is accumulating. Asked if BWSSB had any role in the incident, Parwez refused to comment.
Meanwhile, BMRCL used M20 concrete which is used to make slabs and 20 cubic meters of material was used to seal the sinkhole. “As per BMRCL MD orders, we will conduct tests in in the surrounding radius of 20meters and use penetration methods. The material will take about 10 hours to settle, and the traffic police have been asked to bar traffic on this stretch,” said Hega Raddi, executive director, BMRCL.