Bengaluru: Metro tunnelling leaves 30-ft sinkhole

Tension gripped the Venkateshapura neighbourhood near Tannery Road after tunnelling work for the Metro line left a 30-foot sinkhole under the wall of a house in the early hours of Wednesday.

The tunnelling work is part of the Dairy Circle-Nagawara underground Metro section of Reach 6 line (Gottigere-Nagawara). Tunnel boring machine (TBM) Bhadra began digging from the proposed Venkateshapura station towards Tannery Road station in June this year.

Mubeen, the owner of the building, told reporters that the family living on the first floor called him at night. “I was told about strong vibrations and saw a photo of a hole near the basement which seemed small. In the morning, I was shocked to see the sinkhole. Metro officials had closed the hole last month,” he said, demanding that authorities compensate for the damage or buy his property altogether.

In response, Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (BMRCL) said the sinkhole appeared at 7.30 am and a family of five was evacuated to safety and a shop on the ground floor has been closed.

“On inspection, it appears that this was an old open well which was closed and on which the house was built...Once the well is filled with sand and concrete after securing the building, tunnelling will continue. Once the tunnelling below the building is completed, the family will be relocated after ensuring the safety of the building,” BMRCL chief public relations officer B L Yashavanth Chavan said.

He said BMRCL did not have prior information about the well. “In the 900-metre stretch that Bhadra is tunnelling, we have located 20 open wells and 11 borewells. Precautions were taken to ensure there are no untoward incidents in such areas. However, when information about old wells is not available, it becomes difficult to take action like prior evacuations,” he said.

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