A part of the busy Narayan Hardikar Marg in front of the old passport office in Worli caved in on Wednesday morning,after an underground stormwater drain collapsed,causing a 20-ft-deep hole on the stretch. The road is used as an approach road to the Bandra-Worli Sea Link. The cave-in was due to the collapse of a double-barrel arch drain which was built in the British era. said additional municipal commissioner Aseet Gupta. The collapse of the drain led to a part of the road giving way as it had no support,said an official present on the spot. Of the total length of the road,a 50-metre part has been affected,said Gupta. The eight-metre part of the 50-metre patch has caved in,the official added. The cave-in also caused panic amongst the local residents and passers-by as it was a busy morning hour when the incident happened,said Ramesh Pawar,a local resident. The panic increased when a private bus ferrying employees of an organisation to work almost got stuck in the hole caused by the cave- in,he added. As a quick measure,the storm water drain will be replaced by pipes within two days and this will cost about Rs 15 lakh, said Gupta. The rest of the 42-metre road is vulnerable. So,we will barricade it and not allow heavy vehicles to pass through that road. The 42-metre patch of road will also be repaired post monsoon and this will cost around Rs 3 crore,said Gupta. The replacement and permanent repair work,which involves concretisation of the drain and the road,cannot be done until after monsoon gets over,he added. If the concretisation is done at this point of time,the areas nearby such as Parel,Elphinstone run a very big risk of flooding,said C K Watave,chief engineer of Storm Water Drains. Some years ago,the road barring this patch had been repaired and concretised,while paver blocks were laid over the patch. The officials said that the patch of 50 metres was left out for some reason which could not be identifed currently. Another patch on the same road had caved in 10-15 years back and destroyed homes of slum dwellers living along it,said an official. Most of the double-barrel,arch-type storm water drains are proposed to be replaced under the BRIMSTOWAD project. Of the total 52 works under BRIMSTOWAD,nine of them have not been started,said Gupta.
