NEW DELHI: A large portion of a busy road under South Delhi’s IIT flyover caved in on Saturday posing threat to commuters. This is the fourth cave-in incident reported in the national capital this monsoon, highlighting the poor quality of road construction and maintenance by Delhi’s civic agencies.
Due to the cave-in, traffic on the busy stretch that connects Central Delhi, Hauz Khaz, Munirka, Vasant Kunj, India Gate, AIIMS, Safdurjung Hospital, Greater Kailash and Airport was affected.
“Vehicles coming from Adchini towards IIT have been diverted from Adchini to Katwariya Sarai due to the road cave-in at IIT Red Light. Please try to avoid this route and take alternative routes to escape from traffic jam,” said an advisory from traffic police.
The incident happened between 9.30 and 10 in the morning and the traffic police cordoned off the area to avoid any untoward incident, and diverted the traffic. The road comes under the jurisdiction of Public Works Department (PWD).
Both the traffic and PWD officials rushed to the spot. “We are ascertaining the reasons behind the cave-in. Although it’s not confirmed yet, the road might have caved-in due to a cracked sewer line connected to the Delhi Jal Board. No one was injured and we are working to repair the road,” said a PWD official.
Several complaints of waterlogging and broken roads have been reported in the past few days due to the rains. A portion of road near Rafi Marg had caved in last week due to rain. Another cave-in had occurred two weeks ago, on July 19, in Dwarka Sector-18. A car belonging to a Delhi Traffic Police personnel while his son driving it fell into the large pit formed after the cave-in.
Further, three people have died during the monsoon season this year.