House develops cracks due to excavation on highway

Ambika Sharma

Tribune News Service

Solan, May 30

Huge cracks developed in a double-storey house of Roshan Lal at Saproon on the National Highway (NH) 22 above a site where excavation work for the four-laning of the Parwanoo-Solan stretch was under way.

The house, which has about 17 rooms, has been declared unsafe and its occupants had been directed to vacate the house yesterday as huge cracks have appeared all over the house.

Additional District Magistrate Sandeep Negi while confirming the news said the family of Roshan Lal had been provided an alternative place to stay, though his family preferred to shift to their relatives house. He said officials of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) had been directed to assess the damage caused to the house and pay a suitable compensation to the family.

He informed that a meeting was held with the NHAI Project Director RS Puri on this issue here. He said Puri has assured of taking precautionary measures like binding the surface of the hill to prevent it from falling further. A protective wall would be erected from the base to give buttress the hillock which was giving way owing to reckless excavation work underway in its base.

He said the district administration was assessing the situation on a daily basis. Though Roshan Lal was satisfied with the excavation work under way below his house, he had not contemplated such a massive damage. He said some cracks had appeared on Saturday too though they did not appear to have posed any threat to the house then.

A large quantity of muck has also fallen on some vacant plots abutting Roshan Lal’s house and some cracks had developed outside the gate of a senior judicial officer residing above the excavation site.

The NHAI officials directed the workers to place sacs of mud or sand against the falling hillock to prevent it from collapsing further.