Noida-Greater Noida Expressway caves in as underpass construction begins
What's the story
A portion of the expressway connecting Noida and Greater Noida caved in disrupting traffic in Sector-96 on Friday. The incident happened near the Supertech twin towers, which will be demolished on Sunday. Officials said it was caused due to an underpass being constructed beneath the collapsed portion. After barricading the 15-foot-long and two-foot-wide sinkhole, it was repaired and traffic movement was restored on Saturday.
Context
Why does this story matter?
On Wednesday, Union Minister for Road and Transport, Nitin Gadkari took a dig at the poor quality of roads in India. He sarcastically remarked that frequent maintenance works made officials, politicians, and contractors happy, except for the people. In July this year, parts of Bundelkhand Expressway in Uttar Pradesh (UP) developed cracks just days after being inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Twitter Post
The damaged lane was barricaded and later repaired
Noida-Greater Noida expressway pic.twitter.com/vBqgTatHMu
— Piyush Rai (@Benarasiyaa) August 27, 2022
Details
Construction of underpass along the expressway began on Friday
The construction work of an underpass beneath the Noida-Greater Noida Expressway had begun on Friday using the box-pushing method. The 27 km-long expressway has six lanes and witnesses heavy traffic on weekdays but is relaxed over the weekend, officials said. They said no traffic congestion was seen on Saturday. Although traffic was still diverted on service lanes near the Mahamaya flyover, said Noida authority.
Previous incidents
String of road cave-ins across UP
In 2021, a portion of the Purvanchal Expressway — termed as UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's dream project — had caved in near Sultanpur. In 2018, a large portion of the road caved in at Vasundhara in Ghaziabad following heavy downpour. Residents of two apartment buildings had to be evacuated. The same year in August, a stretch of Agra-Lucknow Expressway developed cracks near Wazidpur bridge.