New Delhi: In a city like Delhi, where there are 60 lakh vehicles and the monsoon is just round the corner, it's time commuters started to worry.
Over the past week, three roads in the Capital have caved in at major intersections, including a section of the ambitious Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project.
In the latest incident, 40 passengers had a close shave in East Delhi when a low floor bus they were travelling in, fell into a ditch four feet deep, and under the weight of the bus the road further caved in 10 feet.
The government has been revving up the city's infrastructure ahead of the Commonwealth Games, spending thousands of crores on flyovers and streetscaping. But experts point out that it's the existing roads that need to be fixed.
"Roads constructed now do not follow specifications. If there are leaking sewer pipes or water pipes below the road, then it affects the bitumin of the roads. Sometimes the bitumin is washed away that's why a hollow is created under the carriage way," said PK Sarkar
Moreover, several stretches of roads carry a lot more traffic than they are meant to be.
But surprisingly, this does not seem to concern Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit much.
"Somewhere it happens that when you have a huge population of 1 lakh 60 thousand living in the city, the kind of vehicles and traffic that the city has, these small incidents will keep happening," Dikshit said.
But Delhi seems to be running out of patience.
"They just dig up these roads hundreds of times and pretend to be constructing good roads, but just pocket all the money for personal use," said Manjeet Singh, a Delhi resident.
Is this a risk the city can afford to take ahead of a grand international sporting event?