Surat: Just five days after a road was restored following pipeline work, a section of it caved in in city’s Dindoli area on Wednesday, causing a truck to tilt and exposing an underground pipeline leak that had weakened the surface.The incident occurred when one side of the truck’s tyres sank into the damaged stretch. Cracks had appeared along a sizeable section of the road before the surface gave way, as the ground beneath had been weakened by leakage from an old 300-mm pipeline connected to the Dindoli Water Treatment Plant.The road had been dug up on June 13 for the laying of a new water pipeline and was subsequently restored. However, signs of damage began to emerge within days.The cave-in disrupted traffic on the busy stretch and prompted an investigation by the Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC). Civic officials excavated the affected portion using backhoe loaders and found that leakage from an old underground pipeline had weakened the soil, leading to the subsidence. During the inspection, officials discovered leakage from an old 300-mm-diameter backwash pipeline of the water treatment plant.“A trench subsidence incident occurred on the approach road to the Dindoli Water Treatment Plant. During excavation and inspection, leakage was detected in an old 300mm backwash pipeline. Water from the leak spread along the pipeline corridor, leading to settlement of the trench,” an SMC official said.Officials said the trench had been dug by the hydraulic department to lay a new pipeline and was later refilled and resurfaced. However, leakage from the old pipeline gradually weakened the soil beneath the road, resulting in the cave-in.The damaged pipeline is part of the plant’s backwash system, which carries water from the filtration unit for recycling. Although a new pipeline has already been laid for the same purpose, water continued to flow through the old line.“The old pipeline developed a leak that went unnoticed during the installation of the new line,” an official said.Repair work on the damaged pipeline and restoration of the road are being carried out jointly by the Limbayat Zone and the hydraulic department.The incident has raised concerns as the road suffered damage even before the onset of the monsoon. In recent months, several roads across Surat have been dug up for metro rail works, riverfront development and utility network shifting projects, causing disruptions to traffic and putting pressure on road infrastructure.
