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Gurugram sewer line breach causes road cave-in at IFFCO Chowk; traffic diverted
In December, GMDA warned the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) about a possible cave-in at the IFFCO flyover
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A large sinkhole was formed on the service road after a master sewer line collapsed on Tuesday afternoon at Gurugram’s Iffco Chowk, triggering traffic disruptions at one of the city’s busiest intersections, people familiar with the matter said.
The incident, which comes a day after torrential rains led to waterlogging across the city, took place at about 3pm on a stretch near Westin Hotel when a portion of the service road caved in, leading to a 10 feet by 10 feet sinkhole on the Delhi-Jaipur side. Traffic police barricaded the site and diverted commuters onto alternative routes while emergency repair teams were deployed.
Officials linked the road cave-in to the collapse of a dilapidated sewer line managed by the Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA).
GMDA spokesperson Neha Sharma said the authority, alongside the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), moved quickly to secure the location. “The affected area has been barricaded, and the GMDA has issued directions to the agency for the repair of the 1000mm master sewer line in the area. The road repair work will be taken up after the master sewer line is repaired,” she said.
GMDA executive engineer Bhim Arya told HT that the line was part of the master sewer line that runs from Ambience Mall to Rajiv Chowk along the service road of the national highway.
“The repair of the sewage line will be started from Wednesday morning and all efforts will be made to complete the work at the earliest,” Arya said,
The GMDA sewage line had collapsed at Iffco Chowk in 2021 too, just 100 metres from the current cave-in when a large portion of the drain under the Iffco Chowk flyover collapsed, requiring major repair of the drain and the retaining wall of the flyover by GMDA and NHAI.
NHAI officials said the cavity on the left hand side had exposed significant void formation beneath the road, with water accumulation observed inside.
“Preliminary findings indicate that a GMDA master sewer line is running beneath/along the affected location, and possible leakage or failure of the sewer line may have caused soil erosion and subsequent collapse of the road crust,” an NHAI official said.
“We have instructed GMDA to repair it immediately as it poses a risk to nearby structures also, the official said.
Waterlogged roads in Gurugram also led to a vehicle carrying 300 bags of cement getting trapped in Sector 9 when driver could not assess the weakened road surface along a submerged, excavated stretch on a link road to the Dwarka Expressway.
In another case, a heavy sand truck broke through a concrete drain cover, trapping the vehicle on a service lane along the Delhi-Jaipur Expressway.
No injuries were reported.
