Portion Of Jharkhand's 8-Lane Road Caves In Again At Dhanbad

A portion of Jharkhand's first eight-lane road, built at a cost of Rs 461.9 crore and inaugurated in October last year at Dhanbad, has caved in again, officials said on Tuesday.

The repair work is expected to be completed on Tuesday night, they said.

"A portion of the World Bank-funded 20-km-long eight-lane road caved in near the Raja Talab in Dhanbad on Saturday. Earlier, too, some other portions of the road had collapsed due to the leakage in the underground water pipeline as part of the Dhanbad water supply project.

"The private construction firm looking after maintenance of the road has already started repair work, and the work is expected to be completed by Tuesday night," said Deputy General Manager (DGM) State Highway Authority of Jharkhand (SHAJ), Sanjay Kumar.

The SHAJ official further said that the water pipeline was laid by the Public Health Engineering Department (PHED) of Jharkhand, and a large portion of the water pipeline runs underneath the eight-lane road.

"During testing of the water supply, there occur leakages in the water pipeline due to pressure, and this water leakage causes soil underneath the road to collapse, causing a cave-in on the surface of the road. The private firm has been asked to monitor constantly and carry out repairs immediately to address such a collapse of the eight-lane road stretch and prevent problems for commuters in the city," said Kumar.

The eight-lane road was inaugurated by Chief Minister Hemant Soren on October 4, 2024 and is being maintained by Dhanbad Municipal Corporation (DMC).

Around eight feet of the road had earlier caved in in October 2024.

"We have held a joint meeting with PHED officials overseeing Dhanbad water supply to address the problem of operators leaving the valve along the water pipeline half-open, which in turn exert pressure on the pipeline and finally leads to leakage or bursting of the underground pipeline, which in turn leads to collapse of the surface roads," said Kumar.

The water pipeline was laid in the year 2019, the same year when the Dhanbad eight-lane road had its foundation stone laid by the then Chief Minister Raghubar Das.  

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