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Less than two weeks after pipeline work was carried out on a section of SV Road near Lucky Junction in Bandra West, the road and metal lid over the pipe caved in, leading to flooding and disrupting traffic flow around 3.30 pm on Friday.

When mid-day looked up the area on Google Maps at 6.47 pm, a 650-m stretch from Turner Road to the junction appeared badly congested. An old water pipeline had been replaced with one measuring 750 mm in diameter on March 29, and by 5 am on March 30, the BMC had successfully laid a tar road over the spot and installed a metal lid.

What happened?

Since Friday morning, locals claim to have noticed water leaking from the road laid above the pipe, though many ignored this and did not contact the BMC.

At 3.30 pm, the road caved in, leaving a 10×7-foot hole through which water started spouting. Traffic police present at the spot said that the water immediately rose to an ankle level.

By 4 pm, the traffic police and officials from the BMC’s H West ward began managing the flow of vehicles by making the northbound lane a two-way street and shutting the valve, after which the workers started clearing debris to prepare the southbound stretch for traffic.

Official Speak

Denying that the incident had anything to do with the new pipeline, Dharmatejas Prassanadas, assistant engineer, H West ward, said, “An old pipeline had slid out. It is connected to the new one installed in late March. But the issue is limited to the old pipeline as of now.” Mandar Choudhary, assistant engineer of H West ward, said, “It is yet to be seen if any problem is caused to the water supply from Bandra to Santacruz due to this leak.”

Residents’ voices

Sayyed Rafiq, witness
‘There had been leakage since morning, though small, but once the road caved in, the water pressure was fierce. Luckily, at the time, the signal was red from all sides, which saved many lives’

Another local, who requested anonymity
‘Everyone was so terrified when the road gave way that pedestrians ran away from the spot. The traffic police were quick to manage the situation, but the BMC’s shoddy work almost cost many lives and several gallons of water’

Dattatray Kolekar, Traffic Police Inspector 
‘We rushed to the junction as soon as we heard about the incident and started to divert traffic and clear the area to the right of the hole, so that traffic could start moving from this side of the road’