Kuldip Bhatia Ludhiana, August 1 Heavy rain that lashed the city for nearly two hours in the morning took a heavy toll on the urban infrastructure. While most roads and streets were under knee-deep water, part of a road, alongside the (now abandoned) City Centre project site, in Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar colony of the Ludhiana Improvement Trust (LIT) caved in after the soil underneath was washed away. Some part of the berms, along the road in H-block (near Prem Vihar Chowk) developed wide cracks, indicating possibility of more damage after another spell of rain. As the rain continued and earth underneath the road could be seen being washed away in the dug-up area of the City Centre project site, alarmed residents along the road, from blocks H and G, alerted the LIT officials to take up preventive steps without any further delay lest the houses and properties along the road should suffer any damage. A team of engineering branch of the Trust reached the spot and took up work for pitching sand bags and supports along the damaged portion of the road. “A tipper and JCB machine have been deployed to help the labour strengthen the side of the road which had developed a curve-like depression,” said an LIT official. Residents of G and H blocks of the colony, OP Madaan and SK Nijhavan, said it seemed the LIT officials were waiting for some tragedy to happen. Though the City Centre project was abandoned more than 10 years ago, the large portion of dug-up area had become accident-prone. Earlier also, houses situated along the project site had suffered damage due to road cave-in in the past few years. An LIT official said the City Centre case was under litigation, so it was not possible to take up construction of a retaining wall. “At the moment, we can only take preventive steps and work of emergency nature at the site,” the official added.

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