A day after the State government set the deadline to rid the city’s roads of potholes by October, a section on Bull Temple Road in Basavanagudi caved in on Tuesday afternoon creating a 30 feet deep crater much to the shock of some motorists who happened to be on that road.
This is the second such incident on the road in three months.
According to witnesses, the incident took place opposite the Basavangudi telephone exchange around 2.30 p.m. “The road caved in with a cracking noise just as a bus passed on the other side of the carriageway,” recalled a couple who sell mud pots on the pavement nearby pointing to the crater on the road.
Local shopkeepers barricaded the crater and also attempted to cover it with stones and mud.
Retired professor K.S. Vishwanath, a resident of the area, said the portion had been looking out of shape for the last few days. “I have been noticing this every time I passed by during my morning walk. This was waiting to happen. Luckily, no one was injured,” he added.
BWSSB Assistant Executive Engineer Ramamoorty, who was supervising repair works at the spot, said, “There are no pipelines underneath. Perhaps, some loose soil gave in,” he said.
The hole, which was nearly 30 ft x 15 ft, was covered using an earthmover in an operation lasting till 6.45 p.m. Traffic crawled past the stretch while repair was underway. Normalcy was restored at 7 p.m.
Previous incident
Three months ago, a two-wheeler rider suffered minor injuries when the earth caved in on the same road 100 metres from the present location.
