Road caves in at Shoolay Circle, BMRCL, BBMP pass the buck

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: Panic ensued among motorists and residents around Shoolay Circle in the city after a sizable portion of the road caved in on Thursday afternoon. A motorcyclist riding on the road suffered injuries as he lost his balance and fell into the sinkhole. The incident took place on the stretch where Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) tunneling work is underway.

Following the incident, the movement of vehicles in the Central Business District (CBD) area of the city was disrupted and traffic police personnel were deployed to clear the congestion. This incident comes two days after the reinforcement of an underconstruction metro pillar fell on a two-wheeler, killing a mother-son duo, on the Outer Ring Road near Nagawara.

Blaming Namma Metro tunnelling work for the sinkhole, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) officials said that the tunnelling work caused soil particles to loosen up leading to a three-metre deep sink hole. The junction is along the GottigereNagawara R6 underground Namma Metro line where tunnel boring machines are at work.

The underground subway is said to be 13 kilometres long and will connect Dairy Circle and Nagavara. Suguna Ramareddy, Chief Engineer, East zone, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike, said, "An inspection will be done to ascertain what caused the road to cave in. We have asked BMRCL to fill up the sink hole,” he said.

However the BMRCL refused to take responsibility for the road caving in. Soon after the incident was reported, BMRCL officials rushed to the spot and took stock of the situation. Several workers were called in to repair the road and a concrete mixer was brought in to fill the sinkhole with concrete in the evening.

“We can’t say that BMRCL is at fault here. It has been five days since the tunnel boring machine passed this route. So far, we haven’t found that the soil had loosened or there was any waterlogging,” said Siddanagowda Heggareddy, a BMRCL executive engineer.

"We can’t comment on the quality of the road, but we have fixed this since BMRCL completed work here. We had taken all precautionary measures,” added another BMRCL official. According to eye-witnesses near the spot, BMRCL contractors had finished the underground drilling work a few days ago.

The ride on the stretch was bumpy since the morning for many motorcyclists, they said. The stretch was later barricaded by Metro workers and police officials reached the spot and diverted the traffic to clear the road.