NEW DELHI: After a video of a portion of the x, which was inaugurated in April, caving in went viral, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) Friday announced the suspension of the team leader of the authority engineer and the project manager of the contractor.
The authority said in a statement that it had issued show cause notices to the concerned project director, authority engineer and contractor.
This comes a day after the authority blamed the cave-in observed on the Delhi-Dehradun Economic Corridor on Monday on water stagnation following rains the night before. The NHAI also cited constraints in commissioning the permanent cross-drainage system at the location. “NHAI regrets the inconvenience caused to NH commuters due to the road surface cave-in at a location on the Delhi-Dehradun Economic Corridor following rainfall. The section has been restored and opened for regular traffic movement,” it said in a post on X.
Following the incident, which was reported from Gogwan Jalalpur village near Shamli, the NHAI said it immediately undertook restoration works and has commenced construction of an interim parallel drain to ensure safe disposal of rainwater until the permanent drainage system can be commissioned. The affected location is under continuous monitoring to ensure safe and uninterrupted traffic movement, it added.
Meanwhile, the authority has also sought an explanation from Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) regarding the circumstances leading to afire accident involving its tanker ferry LPG that took place last month at a toll plaza in Uttar Pradesh’s Kaushambi district.
This came as a video of the LPG tanker crashing into the toll plaza and triggering a massive fire in which at least five people were killed surfaced on social media on Friday. In a statement, the NHAI clarified that the incident took place on June 26. Preliminary findings indicated that the tanker collided with the bull nose of the divider before the toll plaza while attempting to manoeuvre the vehicle, resulting in LPG leakage and a fire that affected the tanker, toll plaza booths and the toll control room, it stated.
“Teams from the NHAI, the district administration, police and fire services responded immediately, bringing the fire under control and ensuring that the injured were shifted to the hospital. The swift and coordinated response of all agencies helped avert a much larger disaster… In view of the incident, the NHAI has issued a show cause notice to IOCL, seeking an explanation regarding the circumstances leading to the accident and appropriate accountability,” the NHAI said.
It further urged all heavy vehicle drivers to maintain a safe speed, exercise utmost caution, and avoid driving under fatigue or drowsiness.
