ROAD CAVES IN

ROAD CAVES IN

Harrowing time for residents

TIMES NEWS NETWORK


Bangalore: It’s been a day now. No power, water shortage and even telephone lines snapped till 5 pm on Friday. Residents at this road in Madhavnagar, next to hotel Highlands have been trying hard to get back to normal life post the road cave-in on Thursday. Though no one was injured, an autorickshaw and a two-wheeler were also sunk with the road here.
“Jumping over a six-foot-high wall early morning to go to school for an exam.. it was really not easy’’ says Meenakshi, a student of Sophias high school who stays here. With no power the entire night, she had a tough time preparing for the exam.
Normal life here was hit yet again after a little more than four months with the sudden wall collapse on Thursday evening. “The crashing pole, falling auto and flickering lights were a shuddering sight,’’ says Lakshmi finding her way out to the main road with Disha (4), her granddaughter.
Hollow for atleast 10-15 feet below the ground, the only connecting stretch for these residents seems to have exposed more horrors beneath. “It happened four months back also,’’ says Surekha who has been living here for nine years now. The remains of a fallen pole now horizontal, hidden by mud and memories of two workers injured by it then are the only remains of the previous crash that had atleast 100 m of the supporting wall caving in.
People cite many reasons — ‘a compounding effect’ of complex issues leading to the crashes. Much of it due to the construction of the 12-storey hotel building on for two years now. The constant digging for the three-level basement parking and the haphazard work by the BWSSB in re-laying the sewage lines on this partially cemented road five months back, cited as the common reasons.
toiblr.reporter@timesgroup.com


NO GROUND BENEATH THEIR FEET:
Stranded residents in Madhavanagar on Friday. The road next to a construction site caved in on Thursday evening sinking an autorickshaw and a two-wheeler