KMC set to repair Behala road damaged by quake

Kolkata: The road that cracked in Parnasree Palli, Behala, will undergo a special repair process, with the Kolkata Municipal Corporation planning to rebuild a guard wall along a pond before taking up reconstruction of the road. The guard wall had collapsed following the earthquake on Friday. The civic body will also look at ways to strengthen the foundation of the nearby buildings. "We will first need to rebuild the guard wall and then go for reconstruction of the road. Rebuilding the guard wall will act as a protection for the foundation of the buildings whose foundation might have suffered minor damages due to the crack," a KMC official said.
The civic official, along with other senior officials from KMC civil engineering department, went to the spot on Friday after the freshly laid road developed a long vertical fissure after the tremor. "After studying the effects of the quake on the road and the roadside buildings, we have come to the conclusion that we will need to restore the road and strengthen the foundation of the buildings. In order to restore the road, we will need to dig up the present cracked road and then fill up the gap with sand. Then we will prepare a bed and reconstruct the road giving it more strength to withstand future disasters," a senior official from the KMC civil engineering department said.The road as well as the buildings in the vicinity have been constructed on soft soil. Locals said the area was part of a pond and had been reclaimed. Lack of adequate compaction of the earth led to settling of soil during the earthquake, causing the fissure.Officials said the road's location beside a pond contributed to the damage, with the crack triggered during the earthquake after the collapse of the pondside guard wall. Most of the buildings in the are have come up in the last four to five years. "The presence of the pond alongside the road made a difference. The immediate effect of the earthquake was the collapse of the guard wall around the pond. In no time, the road developed a crack," the KMC official said.Besides reconstructing the guard wall, KMC engineers will also fill up the pond with water as a means to give strength to the reconstructed guard wall. "We will need to invite a tender for reconstruction of the road and the guard before the declaration of state assembly polls so that we can wrap up the reconstruction work in a month," the official said.A team of civic officials also visited the area to assess damage to the road and to check for similar risks elsewhere. "We are looking for other damaged roads as well. Special search will be for the roads that are located by the side of pond or other water bodies," a KMC official said.