Panic, resentment after Bengaluru sinks again!

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: After the recent road cave-in incident near the Shoolay Circle that injured a biker, another sinkhole appeared on the Mahalakshmi Layout Main Road just two days after it was asphalted following pipeline work by the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) here. According to sources from the spot, the sinkhole appeared on Tuesday morning when a BBMP garbage truck attempted to pass through the stretch, but got stuck in it.

The incident caused a crack in the BWSS pipe. As the residents and local activists gathered around the damaged road blaming the civic agencies for what they termed “shoddy work”, photos and videos of the threefeet-wide sinkhole began making rounds across various social media platforms trying to alert the civic authorities about the issue. A massive traffic jam was reported due to the damage on the busy road.

According to local residents, the BWSSB was carrying out underground pipeline work here and had asphalted the road only recently. BJP leader and Mahalakshmi Layout MLA K Gopalaiah, who visited the spot, said that he got calls from a few residents of the area complaining of the lack of water supply.

"The pipeline is more than 40 years old and it had developed cracks even before the truck passed that way. By 8 am, a huge amount of water loss was reported," he said.

On hearing about the road cave-in, the MLA claimed to have sent his representatives to inspect the damage. "Road asphalting is being undertaken in Mahalakshmi Layout consistently. This incident is solely because of the 40-year-old pipeline that developed cracks," he said. However, the residents and netizens have criticised the state government and the civic authorities for the shoddy infrastructural works.

Only a few days ago, in a similar accident in the Ashok Nagar area, a bike rider fell into a sinkhole and injured himself. The sink hole reportedly emerged in the middle of the road due some Namma Metro works in the area. A string of such incidents have been reported in the tech city since the tragic metro pillar collapse that claimed the life of a mother and her child