Portion of busy road in Bhubaneswar caves in

Bhubaneswar: Students in a college bus escaped unhurt when a portion of a road near Power House Square in the Capital city caved in on Monday morning.

At around 11 AM today, the college bus carrying over 50 students started leaning left after the road caved in. The driver and all students got down immediately.

"The bus suddenly started leaning and the students inside shouted for help. People rushed to the spot and helped the bus out of the hole. It created a 10-ft-deep hole on the road and it was soon filled with water," said a local.

Babaji Charan Behera, the Assistant Executive Engineer, R D Department, said the road caved in owing to the ongoing underground cabling work in the city by OPTCL.

"The cable laying work of OPTCL had broken an underground drainage pipe due to which the road caved in and soon got filled with water," said Behera.

Meanwhile, it is alleged that the underground cabling work has been adding to the traffic woes. Besides, the private agency hired by the OPTCL for the cable laying work is not adhering to norms while executing the work, locals alleged.