The civic authorities are trying to ascertain if civic work, related to a pipeline project meant to bring additional water to the city, could be responsible for the collapse.
The staircase of a pedestrian subway in Ghatkopar (east) caved in at around 8.30pm on Saturday. The civic authorities are trying to ascertain if civic work, related to a pipeline project meant to bring additional water to the city, could be responsible for the collapse.
Alert vendors, who were busy with their usual business, promptly vacated the site after there were slight tremors. No casualties were reported from the site even if the subway was the most sought after pedestrian route connecting Police Colony and Ramabai Colony.
The subway, about a decade old, was constructed and maintained by the Public Works Department of the BMC. Incidentally, the collapse site was not very far from the location where excavation work for Mumbai III water pipeline project was halted due to rains. Excavation work was on from Sion and had reached close to the subway. Officials from the PWD rushed to survey the site.
A BMC source said that it seemed that the ground which was dug up for the pipeline had not been levelled properly when the work had been stopped for monsoon. “Hence, rain water that got accumulated in the dug-up site created a vacuum that must have caused the collapse,” the officer said.
“Tunnelling for the Mumbai III waterline has been going on for almost a year now,” stated Rakhi Jadhav, municipal councillor of N ward. “The excavation has not reached the subway,” she said. “However, it would be investigated whether negligence by the contractor working on the BMC waterline has resulted in the cave in,” she added. The Pant Nagar police are also conducting an inquiry to see if a negligence case has to be registered.
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