Old well beneath surface caused sinkhole that swallowed truck: Pune civic body 

A day after a truck belonging to the civic sanitation department and a motorbike were swallowed by a sinkhole inside the premises of the City Post Office, Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) investigated the incident and clarified on Saturday that it was caused by an old well beneath the paved surface. 

Minister of State for Civil Aviation and Pune Member of Parliament Murlidhar Mohol also confirmed that the sinkhole was due to the presence of a more than century-old well at the site. 

The incident occurred around 4 pm in the parking area outside Pune’s oldest Post Office along the Laxmi Road in the densely populated Budhwar Peth locality. It took two large cranes and four hours to recover the two vehicles. The spot where the sinkhole surfaced was being used by visitors and Post Office staff to park their vehicles and pass through.   

Videos of the incident that went viral show the truck sliding into the sinkhole, rear-first, as the paved surface—made of interlocking cement blocks—collapsed. A motorbike parked nearby also fell into the pit. 

The truck, owned by a PMC contractor and equipped with a jetting machine used for cleaning drainage lines, plunged about 40 feet into the well. Initially, both the PMC and Pune Metro faced criticism for the incident. 

Clarifying the situation, Pune MP Murlidhar Mohol said, “The truck fell into an old well. Over a hundred years ago, there was a well in the City Post premises, which was later covered with a cement slab. The exact time when the well was covered is unclear. Paving blocks were then placed on this slab, and the area was levelled. Opposition parties have tried to politicize this, blaming the Bharatiya Janata Party, but there is no connection between PMC’s work and the accident.” 

Mohol’s comments came hours after PMC Commissioner Rajendra Bhosale, Pune Metro Director Atul Gadgil, and PMC Road Department head Aniruddha Pawaskar visited the site on Friday to assess the situation. 

Pawaskar explained, “We cross-verified the information and confirmed that there was an old well that had been filled with debris and later covered with a paved surface. The weight of the jetting machine truck caused the surface to collapse, as it could not sustain the load, leading to the truck falling into the well. PMC’s drainage lines are located far from this site.” 

A fire brigade official confirmed that the driver of the truck escaped unharmed during the incident. 

An anonymous PMC official added, “We checked with locals to see if there was any old water duct from the Peshwa era but found no evidence of such. However, the existence of a well in the City Post premises has been confirmed.” 

Metro director Gadgil also clarified that the Pune Metro’s underground tunnel, located 15 meters below ground, had no connection to the sinkhole or the accident. “There is no relation between this incident and any metro work,” he said.