Partial cave-in of concrete road in Thane

THANE: A cement concrete road in Thane’s Panchpakhadi locality partly caved in on Wednesday noon, raising concerns over the quality of the ongoing road works done by the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC).

The civic body has taken up several road works across Thane recently, which includes repairing of old roads as well as building new cement concrete roads under the Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s “Changing Thane” initiative.

“I saw the caved in road. This shows how the work has been shoddily done in the city. The road must be hardly 2-3 years old,” said Kalpesh Korde, 38, a resident of Panchpakhadi, Thane.

As soon as the road’s condition was reported to the Regional Disaster Management Cell (RDMC), it asked the concerned department to investigate the issue.

A team of officials from Public Works Department of Uthalsar ward of TMC reached the spot and under the supervision of deputy engineer Keshav Kamble, the repairs of the portion were initiated.

According to the TMC, this road was concretised in 2019. The area where it caved in has a drain line, while the TMC officials claimed that a private party had parked a heavy vehicle at the spot for construction being carried out nearby.

“The parking of the vehicle and its movement might have led to this condition of the road. We have initiated the repairs. Meanwhile we will also study the cause of the damage and do the needful work to ensure it does not recur,” said Kamble.

To improve road conditions and beautify Thane, the state government had allocated funds worth ₹605 crore to the TMC for 281 road works. Of these, ₹127 crore were proposed to be spent on the improvement of 214 roads, while the rest on 155 roads