Pune: A part of the road near Upper Indiranagar on Satara Road caved in on Wednesday afternoon amid ongoing civic water supply department works at the spot.A video of a local resident trying to enter the hole created after the road was damaged was widely circulated on social media.Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) additional commissioner Omprakash Divate said, “The water department was carrying out water line testing works. It led to leakage, which resulted in road damages. Work to repair the road was started swiftly.”Civic officials said they contacted the traffic police and other departments concerned to regulate vehicular flow. The damaged section was barricaded to avoid mishaps. Repair work was under way till late on Wednesday night.A Pune city traffic police officer said, “There was traffic jam at the site on Wednesday morning and we requested motorists to use alternative routes.”Senior inspector Ashwini Satpute of Bibvewadi police station told TOI, “The sinkhole was a large one, and we have barricaded the entire area. We have also deployed a police constable at the spot to prevent any untoward incident.”Meanwhile, opposition parties have demanded a probe into recent tenders issued by PMC for road repairs. The civic administration has decided to scrap tenders worth Rs75 crore for road repairs after objections were raised to the process.Nilesh Nikam, leader of opposition in PMC, said a number of steps are needed to improve roadworks and the related tendering system in the city, in adherence with Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) guidelines. “PMC should enforce strict forfeiture of the Earnest Money Deposit (EMD) for contractors who submit incomplete or incorrect documents. Steps should be taken such as blacklisting ineligible contractors from participating in future PMC tenders for a designated period,” he said.Congress corporator Arvind Shinde added, “The civic administration should come clean in this matter. It should declare details of whether any malpractice has been carried out in the tendering process. If found guilty, the officials concerned must be punished.”
