Road caves in, throws traffic out of gear

Heavy traffic snarls were reported in parts of Central Delhi when a portion of the Bhairon Marg connecting Mathura Road to Ring Road caved in on late Monday night. According to Delhi Traffic Police, sign boards have been put up besides deployment of more traffic cops to deal with the situation.

Throwing traffic out of gear, the chock-a-block situation was seen during peak office hours in the morning till 12 pm and later in the evening from 5.30 pm to 8 pm at the ITO junction, Vikas Marg and the Ring Road stretch near Sarai Kale Khan.

According to senior traffic police officials, they immediately informed the concerned agencies about the cave in. “At around 10 am, a group of senior traffic policemen inspected the site where the road caved in but no repair was initiated by the Public Works Department (PWD) and the Delhi Jal Board (DJB),” said a traffic police official.

The cave in occurred due to bursting of a sewage pipeline. On Monday night, a portion of the road above the pipeline caved in. According to the official: “The sinkhole is more than 20 feet deep and it appears that sewer has settled. However, we have directed PWD and DJB to look into the matter.”

Delhi Traffic Police took to Twitter to help the commuters stuck in long jams to navigate through the traffic snarls caused due to the cave in. It tweeted: “Traffic is heavy on NH-24 in both carriageways from Nizamuddin towards Noida.”

“To tackle the situation, traffic from Ring Road to Mathura Road has been diverted till the repair work is over,” said Muktesh Chander, Special Commissioner of Police (Traffic).

“As per what we have been informed, repair work at the Bhairon Marg will take more than 15 days. So we have deployed enough traffic policemen and placed sufficient sign boards to make it easy for the commuters,” added Chander.

Adding to the woes of commuters who were already troubled by massive traffic jams on the arterial roads of Central Delhi, protests and demonstrations were reported by the jewellers near Akshardham Metro station, as well as obstruction in traffic in the carriageway from Akshardham towards Noida.