Damaged Guirim road likely to be repaired by tomorrow

Panaji: After a newly constructed service road at Guirim caved in on Saturday, PWD officials, following investigations, found that the old, leaking, water pipelines that run below it caused the road to collapse. Officials said that the road repair can be expected to be completed by Tuesday.
On Saturday, the road had caved in across its widthand traffic had to be diverted through another route. A continuous heavy flow of water was seen emerging from below the damaged section.
PWD officials said on Sunday that three pipelines belonging to the PWD and WRD were found running underneath the road.“The pipelines are old and possibly began leaking, damaging the road and leading it to eventually cave in. The pipelines were originally laid by the side of the roads. But as highways are being expanded, the pipelines are now in the middle of the road and being old, leakages can gradually lead to damage to the road,” the PWD official said.
The damaged service road runs alongside the highway. The cave-in occurred near the Guirim-Namoxi junction, close to Hotel Green Park. “The damaged pipelines are being replaced and the work will be completed by late Monday. The work of repairing the damaged road will begin soon after and it will be opened to traffic immediately,” the official said.
Photographs of the damaged road were widely circulated on social media and the collapse of the new road had upset locals, who said the incident points to poor planning. Initially, PWD officials at site said they had no knowledge of any pipeline underneath the road.
“Every year during monsoons, Guirim residents have to use potholed roads. This is the first time a new road had been constructed and resurfaced prior to the monsoon and we were happy about it, only for the road to collapse now,” a Guirim local said.