Road caves-in within seconds in Ludhiana’s Deep Nagar, injures two students

While Ludhiana Municipal Corporation officials said that the road was ‘recarpeted’ just 8-9 months ago and the reason for the ‘sudden cave-in’ was being ‘investigated’, parents of both the students and the school principal said that a major tragedy was narrowly averted as a school bus had also passed from the same spot just seconds before the two-wheeler.

Siblings were taken out from the crater using a ladder. (Express photo)

The entire incident was captured in a CCTV camera installed nearby, which showed how the road in Deep Nagar (ward number 83) sank within seconds after the school bus passed, leaving behind a huge crater. A two-wheeler that was following the bus fell into the crater immediately after. Shopkeepers immediately rushed to the aid of the children and soon brought a ladder to help out both the children. The siblings were rushed to a hospital for X-Ray, and other tests.

WATCH: How a road in Deep Nagar of Ludhiana caved-in within seconds and a two-wheeler with two school children slipped into the crater. So deep was the crater that children had to be taken out using a ladder. Three MC officials issued show cause notice @IndianExpress @iepunjab pic.twitter.com/ESdFOIM7nW

— Divya Goyal (@divya5521) October 28, 2021

Speaking to The Indian Express, Mahi Malhotra, a Class 10 student of Kundan Vidya Mandir (KVM), Civil Lines, who was driving the two-wheeler with her younger brother, Kanav, a Class 5 student of the same school, said that everything was so sudden that she couldn’t properly remember how it happened. “After the school bus passed ahead of us, the road suddenly caved-in. I tried my best to apply the brakes and stop my two-wheeler from falling into the crater. But it was too late and the vehicle went out of my control. My brother and I fell into the crater and sustained minor injuries. Locals later got a ladder to help us get out…”

“It is the duty of the government to ensure that our roads are safe for school children who travel on their own. Thankfully, my brother was not seriously injured. But now whenever I drive again, I will have this constant fear in mind. This is not how our public infrastructure should be,” she added.

Mahi’s mother Shweta Malhotra, said, “I think the officials and government do not have any realisation as to how their negligence can spoil someone’s life. Who would have been responsible had our children sustained some serious injuries? Who checks what kind of materials are used in making roads?”

Navita Puri, principal of KVM, said that a major tragedy was in the making as their school bus too had passed from the same spot just ahead of the two-wheeler. ” Is this how safe our roads are for our children? Both our students on the two-wheeler sustained injuries and their parents were in a state of shock. Someone has to be held accountable for this.”

Incidentally, on October 6, 2019, too, a major road cave-in had happened in the same locality and an SUV was stuck in the crater for hours. An FIR had later also been registered against Raju Thapar, the husband of local Congress councillor Indu Malhotra, for allegedly assaulting a local BJP leader Gaurav Kalia, who had stopped on the spot to ‘give a media byte against the road cave-in’.

On Thursday, Ludhiana councillor, Indu Malhotra, claimed that roads were entirely renovated and ‘re-carpeted’ just 8-9 months back and it needs to be ‘investigated’ how this cave-in happened.

“It has been less than a year that all roads in Deep Nagar were recarpeted. After the cave-in today, the crater was found to be filled with mud and sewage water. So maybe a water pipe burst led to soil erosion and cave-in thereafter. But that needs to be investigated and action should be taken against officials responsible for negligence. In 2019 too, a similar cave-in had happened here,” said Indu Malhotra, who is a two-time councillor.

Her husband Raju Thapar, also a two-time councillor, said, “Mayor Balkar Sandhu and other MC officials visited the spot today and a probe has been started to know the reason of the cave-in. We had taken out the children immediately and informed their parents. Probably, sewage water is getting mixed in the soil which led to this incident.”

Ludhiana civic body commissioner, Pardeep Sabharwal, said that show-cause notices were issued to three officials of the corporation’s Bridges and Roads (B&R) wing — Sanjeev Kumar (assistant engineer), Ankush Sharma (junior engineer), and Raman Kaushal (executive engineer). “They have been asked to submit a written explanation within two days,” said Sabharwal.