Road cave-in on NH-24 to be probed by 3-member panel

The administration formed a three-member panel to investigate the cause of the accident. But Uttar Pradesh Jal Nigam project officer R K Agarwal filed an FIR at Vijay Nagar police station against unknown persons for allegedly tampering with the pipeline and opening its scour valve regularly to steal water. The pipeline carries Ganga water from the Pratap Vihar treatment plant in Ghaziabad to Noida.

Agarwal said people living in unauthorized slums near the highway had been regularly stealing water from the pipeline and the scour valve may have been left open overnight which resulted in the mud melting away. “Prima facie, it seems the mud underneath the surface was washed away due to leakage of water,” said Vimal Kumar