Commuters passing through Central and East Delhi on Tuesday had a harrowing experience as a portion of Bhairon Marg caved in causing massive traffic snarls on all roads leading to the stretch. Blocked and barricaded, the small stretch that connects Mathura Road with Ring Road brought a major part of the city to a standstill. All major roads remained chock-a-block for most part of the day and a spillover effect was experienced on many arterial roads. Traffic especially in Central, North, East and New Delhi, is expected to
move slowly as repair work will take around two weeks, said officials involved in repairing Bhairon Marg.
“Massive road cave-in on Bhairon Marg. Complete diversion of traffic coming from Ring Road to Mathura Road on Bhairon Marg till repair is done,” Delhi Traffic Police tweeted on Tuesday morning.
As Bhairon Marg was closed for traffic movement and all vehicles were diverted to other roads, commuters complained of being stuck in traffic jam for hours at Geeta Colony flyover, Vikas Marg, Ring Road and NH-24. Bumper-to-bumper traffic was witnessed on Mahatma Gandhi Marg (Inner Ring Road) from Indraparstha Marg to Sarai Kale Khan Inter-State Bus Terminus. The cascading effect was seen on other roads including Tilak Marg, Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, Sikandra Road and Indraprastha Marg.
long tailbacks were also observed on Barapullah Elevated road as well.
Interestingly, the road had caved in on Sunday as well but the Public Works Department (PWD) had conducted the repairs. However, the road caved in again on Monday with a 20-feet crater-like hole appearing on the road. The PWD said that it appears that a sewer line passing under the area has collapsed leading to the cave-in of the road. It further said that Delhi Jal Board (DJB) has to fix the same before the road can be repaired again.
“We are trying to figure out the reasons which led to the cave-in of the road and accordingly the repair work will start. It will take around 10-15 days for the repair work to be finished,” said DJB CEO Keshav Chandra.
However, Special Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Muktesh Chander said that traffic police are consulting with PWD to figure out the possibility of using one lane of the other carriageway (from Mathura Road towards Ring Road) for reverse traffic.
“We can only confirm on Wednesday if that can be done. But yes, we are consulting with PWD to explore the possibility. It is the DJB and the PWD that have to figure out how to repair the road and how long it will take. If they say it will take 15 days, then it will take minimum of that and we have to come up with an alternative plan. So we have asked them to let us use one of the three lanes of the other carriageway,” he said.