Just three weeks after the Delhi metro mishap, a portion of the road on the controversial bus rapid transport (BRT) corridor, near the accident site in South Delhi, caved in at around :.30 am today, trapping a motorcycle and injuring the two persons riding it.
The Delhi government said it will order an inquiry into the incident, which took place at an under-construction stretch of the corridor near Moolchand flyover, creating an almost 7-foot-long crater on the road.
The incident took place at a spot just 2km away from the Jamrudpur metro site, where an under-construction bridge collapsed, killing seven persons, on July 12.
"We will order an inquiry and the guilty will not be spared," chief minister Sheila Dikshit told reporters. "Accidents do occur, but we will have to find out what actually happened today."
An official of the contracting firm executing the project said his team is examining what led to the cave-in. "The road is almost 50 years old. There might have been a cavity inside many years back which suddenly became active. We [probably] just overlayed it," he said.
The BRT system from Ambedkar Nagar to Delhi Gate, which came in for criticism from various quarters after a number of mishaps on the stretch as well as the initial chaos that followed the opening of the first section, is in the second phase of construction.
The first section of the BRT system, from Ambedkar Nagar to Moolchand, was inaugurated last year while the second — from Moolchand to Delhi Gate — will be thrown open on September 1. Unlike in the first phase, however, there will be no
physical lane segregation in this section.
Eyewitnesses to today's incident said the motorcycle was sucked inside the cavity which developed out of nowhere. The two riders, identified as Amit Kumar and Santosh, fell outside on the road. They were taken to the trauma centre at the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) at about 2:40am with superficial injuries, a doctor at the institute said.
Kumar, 23, was discharged this morning, the doctor said. Santosh, 29, reportedly left the hospital without informing the staff.
Mishaps in the BRT corridor claimed five lives and left 31 people injured in the first six months of this year. In 2008, 15 people were killed and 71 injured in 70 accidents on this stretch.
The corridor has for long been mired in controversy with the BJP criticising it as a poorly planned project and, during last year's assembly election, promising to scrap it. But the Congress highlighted it as a showpiece venture for smooth traffic movement in the capital before the Commonwealth Games. The Delhi government plans to build six more such corridors.
But frequent accidents at construction sites in the city before the Games are causing concern. "I am scared to get out," said Rohit, a Jangpura resident. "I don't know when something untoward will happen."
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