Just a month and a half after a family had to be evacuated from their home in Shivajinagar due to a mishap caused by metro tunnelling, a sinkhole was formed beside a building on Bengaluru’s Tannery Road at around 7.30 am on Thursday, September 30, which caused another family to be evacuated. The sinkhole was around 100 meters away from Venkateshpura metro UG station towards Tannery Road metro station where Bengaluru Metro Rail Corporation Limited’s (BMRCL) Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) Bhadra was operating.
According to a press release by BMRCL, the sinkhole was caused due to an open well that had been closed and a building built on earlier. “On inspection it appears that this was an old open well which was closed on which the building exists,” the release said.
The building beside which the sinkhole occurred had a chicken shop on the ground floor, and a family of five had been residing on the first floor. According to the release, “To ensure safety, the shop is closed and the family has been provided accommodation near Nagawara.”
The BMRCL has decided to fill the sinkhole with sand and concrete before continuing the boring operation. “Once the filling of the well with sand and concrete, which is in progress, is completed, and after securing the building, the tunnelling activities will continue,” the release stated.
Further, the release clarified that the family will only be relocated back after the safety of the building was ensured and the tunnelling work below the building was over.
Earlier in August, another mishap had occurred due to the tunnel boring operations of Namma Metro near Shivajinagar. On August 13, a house was left flooded with a water and mud slurry after it had erupted from the ground due to pressure applied by the TBM on the weak soil near the house.