00:00A seven-foot-deep sinkhole has emerged on the Ganga Expressway.
00:05The Expressway road caved in near Toll Plaza and the carpets used to cover gaping holes on Expressway,
00:13sinkhole on the Prayagraj-bound carriageway.
00:17Southern road collapsed, which raises safety concern for the commuters.
00:22And the video of the sinkhole has now gone viral on social media.
00:26There has been immediate repair work to restore the road.
00:30The damage was caused by unusually heavy rains.
00:33The sinkhole was filled and the traffic was then restored.
00:39But the big questions that are emerging over Expressway construction,
00:44because this is not the first time that such an incident is being reported,
00:48where the road has caved in.
00:49There's a sinkhole which is being reported.
00:51And the quality and the safety of the highway is now under scanner.
00:56So these are the visuals of the sinkhole that has now popped up on the Ganga Expressway
01:02and because of unusually heavy rains.
01:05And as you can see, these are the visuals of the sinkhole that has emerged,
01:09causing a lot of inconvenience to the commuters,
01:10although the repair work is now underway.
01:13But it raises some very serious questions on the construction quality,
01:18on the safety and security of the commuters.
01:25My colleague Simar Chawla is now joining us on the story.
01:29Simar, another sinkhole has, the sinkhole that has now,
01:34that emerged on the Ganga Expressway raises some very serious questions.
01:37And you can also see how the repair work has been done.
01:42And this raises some very serious questions about the construction quality
01:46and the safety of the commuters.
01:51But indeed, this is the second time in several days that the construction work,
01:55that the repair work has to be done on the Ganga Expressway.
01:58Now, this time, a seven-feet hole was in fact, you know, occurred in the Expressway,
02:05after which the construction company rushed to the spot and started the repair work.
02:09And let me tell you, this is not just a single incident.
02:12In fact, three days back, we saw that how in the water was in fact,
02:16the toll of Ganga Expressway was submerged in the water.
02:19There was some visuals in which the people were sitting inside the toolbox
02:22and, you know, using the computers, doing their work.
02:25And there was water all over around them.
02:27So there have been several issues which have been raised on the construction,
02:31the quality of the construction of this very particular Expressway.
02:34Now, let me just remind you that it's only been several months
02:37that Prime Minister Nain Modi inaugurated this Expressway,
02:40which has been made with the, you know, with the amount of 36,000 crores.
02:45Now, that's a big amount.
02:46You know, keeping in mind that there's the third time or the second time
02:50when the construction and repair work has to be done this very particular Expressway.
02:53Now, the visuals which we are seeing on the screen,
02:56in fact, speaks a lot about the, you know, the quality of the construction.
02:59This was a seven-feet hole.
03:01And let me just tell you, if, you know, if the repair work was not being done
03:06on the right time, you know, there had been several,
03:10there have been several, you know, incidents which could have occurred.
03:13Now, there was some other very important and very strange incident.
03:18The officials rushed to the spot.
03:19They covered this hole, you know, hole with a cloth
03:23just to make sure that no one, in fact, filmed it and no person reported.
03:28But, Sima, you know, we're showing our viewers the repair work that has been done also.
03:32And even the repair work that has been done on the sinkhole
03:35seems very shoddy in these visuals.
03:37And the quality is questionable despite the sinkhole emerging.
03:44Well, indeed, you expect the top-notch quality of the Expressway
03:47when it is being made from more than 36,000 crores of amount.
03:50Now, that's the taxpayer's money.
03:51And when we expect, people expect, you know, the road to be of the top-notch quality.
03:56But that has not been the case as far as the expires were concerned in the past.
04:00Now, the repair work which was done, it was done in a very shady manner,
04:04in a very fast manner, you know, just to make sure that no people,
04:07no person comes and makes the video and, you know,
04:09it should not be suffering on the social media.
04:11That's why the people, in fact, rushed to the spot,
04:13the officials rushed to the spot and tried to, in fact,
04:16to cover up this whole, you know, area.
04:19But in this very particular video, as we're seeing that the quality
04:23has not been up to the mark, several questions are being raised
04:26on the working of the officials of the Expressway,
04:29since it's the private companies of the Expressway is managed
04:32by the private company, you know, the several questions are being raised.
04:35Their official statement is yet to come after the repair work has done.
04:39When this whole was done, the company made a statement
04:41that the work is on, you know, looking into the aspect
04:46that what actually, you know, what was the reason
04:48of this very particular incident.
04:51So now it remains to be seen and now it remains to be seen
04:53since the weather is already, you know, not up to the mark,
04:56the rain is already happening, it remains to be seen that
04:59in further days are we going to see any of the other holes
05:02and, you know, such kind of incident on the Expressway or not.
05:05All right, Simar, thank you so much for those details.
05:07So this is the Ganga Expressway, which has been the flagship project
05:10of the government and it has just been months of its inauguration
05:14and we've already seen such sinkholes on this Expressway.
05:18This is the Expressway, which connects Merit in Western Uttar Pradesh
05:22to Prayagraj in the Eastern Uttar Pradesh
05:24and the repair work, though, was done immediately.
05:27But the kind of quality that we're seeing in these visuals,
05:31the kind of repair work that has been done seems very shoddy
05:34and it's not up to the mark as is clearly visible in these visuals.
