Lucknow’s sinking roads indicate stinking corruption?

LUCKNOW Sinking roads indicate “stinking corruption” in sewer laying work in the state capital as a rupture in the Sector 4 Vikas Nagar trunk sewer, the fourth time since June 2020, resulted in a huge road cave-in and a hazardous situation for unsuspecting citizens, said citizens and corporators of the area. .

The first such crator-like situation surfaced on June 1, 2020, the second on June 2, 2022, the third on November 3 ,2022 and the fourth on March 3, 2024, on the same stretch of road in an area of 1.5 km.

“The alarming frequency of cave-ins has created a hazardous situation for locals and commuters in Vikas Nagar. Last year, a city bus had a close shave, while this time a car found itself stuck on the verge of a 25-ft deep pit. Had the driver not jumped out, there would have been catastrophic consequences. The recurring incidents underline the urgent need for a comprehensive inquiry into the root causes of these road breaking incidents,” said municipal commissioner Inderjeet Singh.

Congress corporator Mukesh Singh Chauhan said, “The incident highlights a larger problem involving poor construction practices, use of substandard material, and lack of accountability and transparency in the work. Immediate action is required to address the issues, conduct a thorough inquiry, which should recommend measures to prevent such incidents in the future. The safety and well-being of citizens must be prioritized, and those responsible for the lapses should be held accountable to restore public trust in infrastructure and governance.”

Sewer lines laid by the Jal Nigam are getting damaged repeatedly, raising a question mark over the quality of work performed by the agency and absence of monitoring by authorities, added Chauhan.

“The pipeline was laid in 2010 from JNNURM funds, but the contractor never bothered to construct a plain cement concrete (PCC) bed before laying the sewer line. PCC is used to create a hard, waterproof base, where the pipes for sewer lines are laid. It can distribute and bear load evenly. A layer of PCC offers better resistance to wear and tear to the pipeline, which is as huge as 1600 mm in diameter. However, in Vikas Nagar or elsewhere in the city, the PCC bed was not created despite knowing that the soil is sandy. The pipeline was laid straight on the soil, which is bound to shake after every rain, causing breakage of pipelines,” said six-time corporator Sayyed Yawar Hussain ‘Reshu’.

He added, “The sewer line is also not properly joined and is leaking at several places, causing erosion of soil, which would lead to similar sort of incidents.”

Jal Nigam assistant engineer Arvind Chaudhary (looking after Vikas Nagar area) said: “Surely, things would be probed. Breakage of sewer lines four times since 2020 is a matter of concern and it also causes a lot of inconvenience to people living nearby.”

He said it will take at least 15 days to get things in order at the spot in Sector 4 Vikas Nagar. Engineers working on the site said the trunk line will have to be diverted and this is not possible before two days.

Meanwhile, a dairy shop owner Dharmendra said, “After the incident, we are even afraid of walking on the road. We want a comprehensive audit of road safety where sewer lines have been laid.”

Dr Suchitra Singh, a resident of Vikas Nagar, is disturbed because the incident took place in front of her house. “I thought my house would be destroyed when the road was opening. We are held hostage inside our house because we cannot take out our car because of the huge crater in front of my house.” Inputs from Animesh Mishra