A portion of Mall Road, one of the busiest roads of the holy city, that links outer city with Civil Lines, caved in again after an hour of pre-monsoon rainfall on Thursday, just three months after it was repaired. The road and footpath caved in 15 feet, as commuters on the road had a lucky escape.

The sorry state of affairs can be attributed to the poor quality of repair material used by the Amritsar Municipal Corporation (MC) and their lack of preparedness to tackle water-logging during rain.

Earlier on September 23, 2018, over 200 square yards of the same portion of Mall Road had caved in forming a 70-foot deep pit, due to incessant rain. Authorities had then laid the blame on a sewerage leak.

Although the MC repeatedly set deadlines to re-carpet the collapsed stretch, the road was finally repaired in March 2019, after six months at the cost of Rs 1.5 crore.

More than 30,000 vehicles ply on the road every day. And as the road remained dug up for six months, commuters, left with a narrow passage faced a harrowing time stuck in traffic jams during peak hours.

“The road caved in due to leakage in the storm sewer laid down by public works department (PWD). The MC team visited the site and barricaded the road to ensure safety for the public. The PWD is fixing leaked pipes and efforts are on to repair the road on priority,” said MC joint commissioner Nitish Singla.

Only one hour of rain left the city roads and streets inundated with water and traffic snarls. Some planted trees and electricity poles also fell down, while several vehicles broke down due to water-logging. Meanwhile rain water also entered into houses, shops and other buildings situated in the low lying parts of the city. Potholes on the roads and absence of drainage points on the stretches are major water trapping areas. The sewerage, too, remained choked in many parts of the city.

Besides the walled city, the affected areas included Batala road, Majitha road, Ranjit avenue, Grand Trunk (GT) Road, Putligarh and city bus stand.

‘ACTION-PLAN READY TO TACKLE MONSOON’

MC joint commissioner Nitish Singla said, “An action plan has been made by Amritsar MC to deal with waterlogging during monsoons. Authorities will meet in the upcoming week. The project to repair the choked and de-silting sewerage and drains project will soon be initiated.”

First Published: Jun 21, 2019 14:55 IST