A three-foot-wide section of the C-Hexagon carriageway to Windsor Place from Key Ashoka Road collapsed on Thursday evening – for the third time in the last 18 months – leading to traffic jams the following morning and disrupting traffic. traffic. in Lutyens Delhi throughout Friday, officers said.

While the traffic police barricaded the stretch and issued an advisory, the area remained congested with one lane completely blocked for traffic.

According to officials of the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC), which governs the area, all the collapses, including those in August this year and July last year, were due to an old sewer pipe that passes under Ashoka Road. This slows down the traffic flow of Janpath, Ferozshah Road, Raisina Road and Ashoka Road during the peak commuting period, officials said.

On Friday, the collapsed portion was temporarily filled with earth and officials said repair work would begin soon.

“We barricaded the area, keeping one lane cordoned off, to allow some traffic. Meanwhile, we have also filled the collapsed part with earth and the NDMC is expected to start the repair work soon,” said a senior New Delhi district police official.

On Friday morning, the Delhi Traffic Police issued an advisory on social media regarding the disturbances on Ashoka Road. “Traffic is affected on Ashoka Road on the carriageway from Hex C towards Windsor Place due to a road collapse near Windsor Place. Please plan your trip accordingly,” he posted on X.

Earlier in August, two sections of Ashoka Road collapsed due to damage to underground sewer pipes which took over a month to repair. A large part of the C-Hexagon near the India Gate had also collapsed near the National Gallery of Modern Art in July last year, leading to traffic disruptions for two days.

Lutyens Delhi’s sewer lines, according to officials familiar with the matter, stretch over an area of ​​250 km and many of them are between 80 and 90 years old. NDMC officials said that over the decades, corrosive gases coming from these sewer lines have become loose from the outer layers. “This leads to collapse or settlement every year during the monsoon season,” an NDMC official said.

The repair work of these sewer lines is already underway in stages, the official said.