Ludhiana: 2 students fall in crater as Deep Nagar road caves in

Harshraj Singh

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, October 28

Two school students riding a Honda Activa scooter fell in about 15-foot-deep and nearly 20-foot-long crater appeared when a portion of a road caved in at Deep Nagar, here, on Thursday morning.

Narrow escape for kids travelling in school bus

It was a narrow escape for students travelling in a school bus as the road portion caved in suddenly after the school bus passed over the stretch in Deep Nagar, a resident of the area said.

It was also a narrow escape for students travelling in a school bus as the road portion caved in suddenly after the school bus passed over the stretch, a resident said.

The two students, Kanav and Mahi, who are siblings, were going on their scooter to KVM School when they fell in the crater at around 8 am. After the road portion caved in, the water supply pipe had got damaged and water got accumulated in the crater.

Both students were soon rescued with the help of a ladder by a local shopkeeper and another person, as per eyewitnesses. The students climbed out of the crater through a ladder and afterwards, they were rushed to a hospital. They got injuries.

Mahi, a Class X student, was riding the vehicle and her brother Kanav, a student of Class V, was riding pillion. As the big crater suddenly appeared, there was no time to apply brakes.

Dr Raj Malhotra of Chawani Mohalla, the grandfather of the two children, said: “We are thankful to God that both my grandchildren are safe and at home now. They, however, have received scratches and deep injuries in the mishap. They were going to school as they had to appear for exams today.”

The badly damaged scooter was pulled out of the crater around six hours after the mishap. A few area residents claimed that a woman had also fallen but she had managed to come out of the crater. However, there was no official confirmation if any woman had fallen too.

Residents blame civic body for tragedy

Municipal Corporation has learnt no lessons from the past road cave-in incidents on this road at Deep Nagar where the water supply and sewer lines are said to be too old. It is yet to be ascertained how soil erosion took place beneath the road that led to the huge cave-in.

Some of the residents blamed the MC for the tragedy and for not taking concrete steps to avert such mishaps.

In 2019, a Toyota Fortuner vehicle had fallen after a big portion of the road had caved in near the spot where the incident occurred today. The residents said when the RMC road was being constructed several months ago, a trolley had stuck after the road portion caved in near today’s mishap site. A road portion had caved in at a nearby street in the past too. They said the MC failed to learn why such incidents were happening again and again. The residents demanded from the MC authorities to conduct a probe in this regard and replace old sewer and water pipes.

A resident, Munjal Kumar, said: “Water supply to our house was disrupted for the past few days. A worker had told us that the road portion had got softened outside shops where the road portion caved in today.”

A wooden structure was kept outside a shop where the land was said to have softened yesterday but no timely steps were taken to avoid the mishap.

An MC official said the sewer lines, manholes and water supply pipes are too old. He said the underground wires were also passing beneath the road too.

Meanwhile, the MC has plugged the water supply line that has got broken to avoid further water accumulation in the crater. MC’s Superintending Engineer Ravinder Garg said: “The actual reason behind the cave-in was not clear. We are getting the land excavated to inspect the sewer line,” he said.

MC chief Pardeep Kumar Sabharwal has issued show-cause notices to B&R officials, including Raman Kaushal, Sanjeev Kumar and Ankush Sharma, after today’s incident and sought their reply in this regard. Sabharwal said a team had been deployed to probe the matter and strict action would be taken if any official was found guilty.

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