Noida: A large portion of Elevated Road’s Sector 60 to 18 carriageway caved in near Vishwa Bharti Public School on Tuesday morning, triggering long tailbacks in the morning rush hour. Noida Authority said a 10-foot-long, nearly three-foot-deep crater opened up on the ramp descending towards Sector 18 around 11 am after soil beneath the elevated road collapsed due to leaks in old water and sewage pipes.Noida Authority said a 10-foot-long and nearly three-foot-deep crater opened up on the ramp descending towards Sector 18 around 11 am as the soil collapsed due to leakages in the old water and sewage pipes that run below the elevated road. Noida Authority general manager SP Singh said the crater was closed by evening, and the bitumen coating would be completed at night after traffic slowed down.The 4.8km flyover, constructed at Rs 480 crore and opened to the public in 2017, is taken regularly by hundreds of commuters heading to residential and office hubs in sectors 18, 23, 25-29 and 60-62 to avoid the heavily encroached Maharaja Agrasen Marg below. Commuters from Indirapuram and Vaishali also use the flyover to commute between Greater Noida West and Delhi via DND Flyway and Noida Expressway.Traffic department data indicates that nearly 1.5 lakh commuters use Elevated Road on weekdays, with traffic volume increasing during the morning and evening rush-hour commute.
Cave in triggered long tailback in the morning rush hour
In March 2024, Noida Authority had spent Rs 14.6 crore to repair sections of the elevated road that had developed cracks and rough patches. On Tuesday, residents of nearby sectors asked why the repairs could not even hold for two years. Sanjeev Kumar, a resident of Sector 51, said it was not just Elevated Road, but the entire stretch between Noida Expressway and Sector 52 metro station was also dotted with potholes. “Even Sector 71 underpass, which opened in 2021, is in poor condition, with large craters almost every few feet,” he said.
A three-foot-deep crater had opened up on the flyover around 10 am
Aman Chaudhury, a resident of Greater Noida West, who regularly takes Elevated Road to his office in Sector 15, shared a video on Tuesday showing a tree branch planted in a crater that had opened up on the flyover around 10 am. “As I reached near Vishwa Bharti Public School, I spotted a deep crater on the left lane of Elevated Road with just a branch protruding from it to steer commuters away from the section,” he said.Noida Authority senior manager Kapil Singh said passersby alerted them around 11 am and a team reached the spot to cordon off the area and initiate repairs. The official said the surface around the pothole was also weak. The surrounding area was therefore broken up using an earthmover before repair work could be taken up afresh.Singh said prima facie, water and sewage pipelines appeared to be running beneath the loop. “It appears there was a leakage in the water pipeline, due to which the soil beneath the area was washed away, leading to a visible pothole. The team excavated the area around the pothole to start the repair work,” he said.Additional CEO Vandana Tripathi said there are residential sectors such as 25, 26 and 28 near Elevated Road, and the water and sewage pipelines to these areas existed before Elevated Road was built. “Primary investigation shows the old pipes leaked, resulting in the incident,” she said, adding that the water department was simultaneously carrying out repair work on the pipes beneath Elevated Road.
