Drain work held up, Southern Peripheral Road's 3rd cave-in in 2 years sees truck fall into sinkhole

Time of India

6 days ago

Gurgaon: A temporary measure to channel stormwater under Southern Peripheral Road (SPR) ended in disaster on Wednesday night when a section of the road near Sector 75A caved in, swallowing a truck.
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The incident, in which the truck driver and his assistant escaped unhurt, occurred around 9.30pm following heavy rainfall, creating a 30m wide sinkhole.
The collapse took place at a spot where GMDA had not yet connected its leg-4 drain across the Sector 75A-75 road.
To temporarily manage the disposal of water, the agency had installed a temporary pipeline underground, rendering the soil around it vulnerable to erosion, especially during heavy rainfall.
It was due to the eroded soil and movement of heavily loaded trucks on the surface that the road gave way on Thursday.
Police have since barricaded the area. "The road was gradually settling over the past few days, but heavy rainfall on Wednesday caused it to cave in. Once the truck is removed, we will start with the repair work," said a GMDA official.
This is the third such incident on the same stretch over the past two years.
In June 2023, a 30-metre stretch, a few metres away from the recently damaged spot, collapsed.
In May this year, a 10-metre stretch collapsed, creating a massive sinkhole near Sector 75.
Following the collapses, the metropolitan authority carried out repair work, but failed to ensure the speedy completion of leg-IV stormwater drain. In June, TOI reported that a 100m hillock near Sector 75A lay in the alignment of leg-IV drain.
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GMDA started the tendering process for dismantling it in April this year, but the work has not yet started.
Moreover, GMDA officials acknowledged that the progress of the drain work was slow. The Rs 105-crore project got administrative approval in May 2019, but it remained stuck in planning and coordination stages for nearly three years.
Tendering began in 2022, and work started in April 2023 with a deadline of Oct 2024.
However, officials said that around 50% of the work was completed so far— nearly a year after its completion was due.
Meanwhile, commuters complained of the work posing a safety risk, especially during heavy rains. There are no signages or protections along stretches where the excavated portion is open, making the area accident-prone.
Dhirendra Singh, a resident of Sector 79, said on Thursday that navigating the busy stretch was not an easy task. "The drain work lies incomplete for over a year. This road sees constant movement of vehicles, including heavy trucks. There are no proper barricades or signages at the construction site," he said.