Noida: With two cave-ins on the Elevated Road within 35 days, Noida Authority has issued a notice to the contractor over poor construction quality. It has also engaged a team from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Roorkee, to determine the cause of the damage and assess the road’s structural condition.A 2×2-foot portion of the road connecting Sectors 18 and 60-61 caved in near Iskcon Temple on Oct 19, just a month after another 10×5-foot section on its loop collapsed near Vishwa Bharti Public School on Sept 15. The Sector 61-18 carriageway has remained closed to traffic since the Oct 19 cave-in, forcing commuters to use alternative routes.“We have issued a show-cause notice to ITD Cementation India Limited, the construction company, seeking reasons as to why the Noida Elevated Road has developed cracks and caved in within eight years of being opened to the public,” Noida Authority general manager SP Singh said.On Sunday, the IIT team was in Noida to examine whether the concrete, steel reinforcement and other materials met prescribed standards and whether the project followed approved designs and technical specifications. The team will also examine whether the cave-ins were caused by the use of poor-quality concrete, corrosion, water seepage, excessive traffic load, and inadequate reinforcement. It will submit a report in a few days.“Once the IIT report is in, we will take further action,” Singh said.After the Sept 15 cave-in, officials had told TOI that the soil had collapsed due to leakages in the old water and sewage pipes that run below the elevated road. However, the Oct cave-in in the middle of the elevated road was a structural safety red flag.Work on the elevated road began in 2013 and was partially opened to traffic on June 29, 2017. It was officially opened in 2018. Constructed at Rs 480 crore, the road was designed to ease congestion between sectors 18, 23, 25-29 and 60-62. Commuters from Indirapuram and Vaishali also use the stretch to commute between Noida and Delhi via DND Flyway.Traffic department data indicates that nearly 1,50,000 commuters use the road on weekdays. Since a part of the road was closed for repairs, traffic has been diverted on Maharaja Agrasen Marg, which runs below it.In March 2024, Noida Authority repaired and restored the road at Rs 14.6 crore after it developed cracks and the surface eroded at different places.
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