The contractor the Coimbatore Corporation had engaged to re-lay Neelikonampalayam Road completed the work a couple of hours ago. No sooner he moved the machinery away the road caved in, creating a cavity on the stretch near Thannithottithidal on Saturday.
Residents, who witnessed the damaged road, clicked photographs using mobile phones and circulated the images, which went viral in city groups on social networking sites.
The residents were aghast at what had happened because the contractor had just completed the road. And then there was this cavity, said the area resident S. Veluchamy.
The residents had in fact warned the Corporation against taking up the work without properly assessing the extent of completion of the underground drainage work in the area.
But it looks like the civic body officials chose to ignore the warning.
The area councillor, S. Balan (Ward 62), said that while executing the underground drainage work in the area, the contractor had damaged a water pipeline, about which the contractor executing the road work was unaware. The continuous leak dampened the earth and led to the road surface caving when road rollers moved over.
And, only when the road caved in, the officials realised that there was something wrong in the area and discovered the leak after removing the earth covering the pipeline.
Following the outcry in social media, the officials responded to the problem by fixing the leaking pipeline at the Thannithottithidal stretch on Sunday. They did so starting the work at 7 a.m., said Mr. Veluchamy.
In the nearby Varadharajapuram North Street, the problem is no different. The residents had on Friday protested against the Corporation’s move to lay the road. The residents did not want the road to be laid without first fixing the leaking pipeline, said resident A. Satheesh.
For the past three months, the pipeline had been leaking and the officials did nothing about it. Now if they were to lay the road, there would be a repetition of the Thannithottithidal incident, which the residents don’t want.
The Corporation should attend to the leak first and then lay the road, he added.
