Ludhiana flyover collapse: Municipal Corporation blames ‘rats’ from garbage dump, experts flag poor construction

The rodent problem in the area is due to MC’s own garbage dump under the bridge. MC official Dharam Singh said, “We have our own garbage dump under the bridge which had led this roden problem here. We are looking into it. Locals have also complained about rats.”

MP Ravneet Singh Bittu, along other officials, inspects the damaged Gill Chowk flyover in Ludhiana. (Gurmeet Singh)

A major tragedy was averted Sunday late after a retaining wall of Gill flyover (Gill chowk) collapsed in Ludhiana city. But as the traffic on flyover was stopped timely, there was no injury or accident. On Monday, traffic remained choked as the flyover was closed.

Speaking to The Indian Express, Dharam Singh, superintending engineer, bridges and roads department, Ludhiana Municipal Corporation said, “A portion of retaining wall has collapsed. There is an extreme rodent problem in the area. It is probably due to huge number of rats who kept on digging underneath that there was soil erosion and a wall collapsed.”

He added that after the construction completed, flyover was handed over to the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) who would now be repairing it.

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The rodent problem in the area is due to MC’s own garbage dump under the bridge. MC official Dharam Singh said, “We have our own garbage dump under the bridge which had led this roden problem here. We are looking into it. Locals have also complained about rats.”

However, the Council of Engineers, which inspected the flyover Monday in its report said the wall did not collapsed due to rats but ‘poor quality of construction’. “The other side of the retaining wall is also on the verge of a collapse and has bulged out. The walls are out of plumb beyond permissible limits as the pre-cast RCC blocks are not properly locked with each other. Apart from rats, water seepage from top is also an issue. It is a big question that how the department gave clearance to such poor quality of construction, said Er Kapil Arora, president of the body.

Ludhiana MP Ravneet Singh Bittu who also visited the spot Monday said that a committee including an IAS and PCS officer and other officials from Public Works Department (PWD), Greater Ludhiana Area Development Authority (GLADA) and Municipal Corporation has been formed to give a report. He added that NHAI experts from Delhi have also arrived to study the issue.

Divya Goyal

Divya Goyal is a Principal Correspondent with The Indian Express, based in Punjab. Her interest lies in exploring both news and feature stories, with an effort to reflect human interest at the heart of each piece. She writes on gender issues, education, politics, Sikh diaspora, heritage, the Partition among other subjects. She has also extensively covered issues of minority communities in Pakistan and Afghanistan. She also explores the legacy of India's partition and distinct stories from both West and East Punjab. She is a gold medalist from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC), Delhi, the most revered government institute for media studies in India, from where she pursued English Journalism (Print). Her research work on “Role of micro-blogging platform Twitter in content generation in newspapers” had won accolades at IIMC. She had started her career in print journalism with Hindustan Times before switching to The Indian Express in 2012. Her investigative report in 2019 on gender disparity while treating women drug addicts in Punjab won her the Laadli Media Award for Gender Sensitivity in 2020. She won another Laadli for her ground report on the struggle of two girls who ride a boat to reach their school in the border village of Punjab. ... Read More

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