Fountain Chowk road caves in yet again

Kuldip Bhatia

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Ludhiana, July 26

Repeated cave-ins on city roads seem to be never ending ever since the rains started in the beginning of this month. Even as the repair of a major road cave-in on Yes Bank Road at Gobind Nagar is still in process, a portion of road near Basant Fast Food at Fountain Chowk caved in on Thursday, although there was no rain today. Traffic at problematic and busy Fountain Chowk, where six roads converge, went haywire with the road users and the traffic police having a tough time.

That the roads remain a major area of neglect and proper upkeep by the Municipal Corporation even though the rainy season had set in, is evident from the fact that there have been more than half a dozen incidents of roads caving in first week of July with the MC officials taking ad hoc and stopgap action, in most cases, failing to check the underlying cause for the roads giving away.

With the beginning of July rains, the city has had road cave-in incidents at Yes Bank Road in Gobind Nagar, the flyover near general bus stand, twice at Fountain Chowk, Dugri, near Shastri Nagar railway crossing, Feroze Gandhi Market and in Haibowal.

If the officials of buildings and roads (B and R) branch of the MC are to be believed, the roads were mostly damaged due to leaking sewer pipes or indiscriminate digging by telecom companies. 

“Most of the times, the telecom companies fail to carry proper repair after digging of roads to lay OFC cables which they are mandated to do. At times, private plumbers do not care about sealing the joints after connecting private sewer pipes for new connections to the main sewer line,” said an MC official.

Executive Engineer Rahul Gagneja said the road cave-in at Fountain Chowk was being attended to and it would be repaired by the end of the day or at the most Friday.

Road cave-ins this month

• Yes Bank Road in Gobind Nagar
• Flyover near general bus stand 
• Fountain Chowk (twice) 
• Dugri 
• Near Shastri Nagar railway crossing 
• Feroze Gandhi Market 
• Haibowal