Bhopal: A 50-metre stretch of a road caved in on the outskirts of Madhya Pradesh’s Bhopal on Monday afternoon, prompting authorities to divert traffic on the route, police said.
The incident occurred near the Bilkhiria area, under the Sukhi Sewania police station limits, around 35 km from the district headquarters, Eintkhedi area sub-divisional officer of Police Manju Chouhan told PTI.
She said that the road built by the Madhya Pradesh Road Development Corporation (MPRDC) caved in, but no one was injured as there were no vehicles at the site at the time.
Video:
Sukhi Sewania police station house officer (SHO) Rambabu Chaudhary said that cracks first appeared on the road around 11.30 am.
“After being notified, we stopped the traffic on the stretch for a while before it caved in. This is a bypass road connecting Indore and Narmadapuram districts,” he said.
Meanwhile, an official statement said that a portion of the road on one side of a railway overbridge caved in after the reinforced embankment (RE) wall was damaged.
Officials from the MPRDC and the local administration rushed to the spot, and the affected area has been barricaded to prevent any untoward incident.
The repair work has begun, along with an investigation into the cause of the cave-in, it added.
According to MPRDC officials, the road was constructed in 2013 by M/s Transstroy Pvt. Ltd. under a Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) model. However, the contract was terminated in 2020 due to non-compliance with contractual conditions.
Talking to PTI, Sukhveer Singh, principal secretary of the state Public Works Department, said that the MPRDC has formed an inquiry team, headed by its chief engineer BS Meena, general managers Manoj Gupta and RS Chandel, and based on the report, the authorities will take necessary action.
The MPRDC managing director has said that if any negligence or irregularity is found in the investigation report, strict action will be taken against those responsible.