Road caves in near Ludhiana’s Ishmeet Chowk, traffic to remain disrupted


A major road cave incident was reported near a level crossing on Ishmeet Chowk Road in Shastri Nagar, adding to the woes of city residents — already troubled by inundated roads from hour-long rain a day prior.

The incident prompted action from the authorities, with the civic body swinging into action and Aam Aadmi Party legislator Gurpreet Singh Gogi also visiting the spot to inspect the damage. He instructed the municipal corporation (MC) officials to narrow down the reason behind the road cave-in and initiate action against those found complacent.

The preliminary investigation revealed that the incident had occurred due to leakage from the sewerage pipe of a nearby restaurant, which damaged the brick-made sewerage line, ‘daat sewerage’.

Admitting that the maintenance work will hinder traffic movement, zonal commissioner Jasdev Singh Sekhon said the area around the leakage point needs to be dug up to check for other possible damage.

It was learnt that the sewerage pipe was laid a few days ago and a probe has been initiated into finding if the restaurant owner took the permission or paid the road-cutting charges to the civic body.

No lessons learnt

“Each time the crater emerges the MC officials cordon the area for months posing hindrance to traffic. After some time, they fill the trench with mud and return only for the road to cave in again. Why can’t they find a permanent solution to it,” Gaurav Sood, an area resident, questioned.

Sewerage lines made from bricks, colloquially called the ‘daat sewerage’, have caused past cave-ins in the area in the psat as well — an occurrence also seen on the Kaka Marriage Palace road, Saggu Chowk, Model Town Extension that also use the decade-old storm sewers. The line on the Kaka Marriage Palace road has caved-in three times in the last three years.

Authorities, meanwhile, say an 80-crore project was expected to be commenced to repair the lines under the Smart City Project. However, the same has been put on the back-burner citing fund shortage.

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Notably, a major portion of Ishmeet Singh road near the Model Town Extension cremation ground had also caved in after the old storm sewer line was damaged in the month of July.

In 2013, an 80-feet crater had been formed near the Dhami Eye Hospital after the collapse of a sewer line in the area.

A similar incident had also taken place near the Ishmeet Chowk in April 2012.

Earlier in 2011, a truck driver had died in a road cave-in near Saggu Chowk.