Cave-in at Vastral is 40-foot deep, will take 15 days to repair: AMC

“We thought it was around 26 feet… but when the team went there and inspected it, the damage turned out to be 40-foot deep,” AMC city engineer Harpalsinh Zala told The Indian Express.

On Sunday had told this paper that the barricading on the cave-in was done on July 16 itself when the road caved-in opposite Sahajanand School along the Metro’s elevated corridor. Videos of the caving-in were widely circulated on social media.

Last week, another major cave-in was reported in Shahibaug area where a car sank. The highest number of six cave-ins were reported from the West zone, followed by five each in the South, Central and North West zones, three in the East zone, two each in South West and North zone, and two cave-ins in East zone.

Between July 10 and 11, Ahmedabad city received nearly 10 inches of rainfall, which had damaged storm water drains and drainage pipelines at several places. In July, 410 mm of rainfall was recorded in Ahmedabad city.

On the repair work of Vastral cave-in, the city engineer said, “With a repair window from 11pm till 5 am, it will take minimum 10-15 days to repair it. There is no point pumping out water during the daytime as it will be filled in no time.”

As the damage to drainage pipelines was at such a depth where machines cannot dig, the earth will have to be manually dug around the cave-in for pipes to be repaired, AMC officials said. Normally, a cave-in repairs take 7-10 days.

About the high number of cave-ins reported from the city this monsoon season, Zala said, “Drainage lines across Ahmedabad city — be it Ashram Road, Navrangpura or Paldi — are 30-40 years old and at a depth of 20-25 feet. These are cement pipes, whose crowns get corroded due to Methane gas emission and the weight of the subsoil that increases during monsoon causes further damage.”