The western (top) and eastern flanks of the Bypass near Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals. (Who do you blame for the condition of the Bypass? Tell ttmetro@abpmail.com)

Shoddy pre-monsoon repair and the incessant rain have reduced traffic on the city’s speed corridor to a crawl, with vehicles being forced to move in single file to avoid getting sucked into water-filled craters on several stretches of the Bypass.

The situation on the artery is feared to remain as bad for several weeks as the CMDA, in charge of maintaining the 21km road, could take up repairs only if it is assured of at least two days’ sunshine at a stretch.

“Given the record showers since the onset of the monsoon around a fortnight ago, it is anyone’s guess whether such a clear window would at all open up this season,” said an official.

The situation is the worst on the three stretches where infrastructure upgrade is on — near Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals for work on East-West Metro, off Science City for the construction of a flyover, and a couple of long stretches between Science City and Ruby hospital for work on the bus rapid transit system.

Under the rapid transit system, which will finally cover the entire thoroughfare, the Bypass will be widened to eight lanes on each flank.

The axle of Somit Banerjee’s Maruti Alto got damaged when the vehicle fell into a large crater under the East-West tunnel opposite the Apollo hospital.

“I was on my way from Salt Lake to see someone at Fortis Hospital. I was tailing a long line of vehicles keeping to the left but that did not help prevent falling into the crater,” recalled the executive with a private airline.

Two-thirds of the western flank of the road was under water, forcing cars to crawl in a file, when Metro visited the stretch 12 hours after Saturday night’s downpour.

A flooded service road near the Science City rotary

A damaged part of the road near Science City

Craters between Science City and Ruby hospital

An East-West Metro official said they would start repairs after work on the 1km stretch of the Bypass got over. The deadline is January.

He also claimed that some restoration was on but the state of the road and the plight of the commuters suggest otherwise.

Moving south, the road is broken in several places between Science City and Ruby General Hospital for the rapid transit system, the most dangerous being the stretches near Tagore Park and Uttar Panchannagram where big craters dot both flanks.

Sufferers should not hope for an early solution as the management of IVRCL, the Hyderabad-based firm awarded the transit system contract, has ruled out wrapping up work by the December 27 deadline because of encroachments and absence of drawings from the CMDA.

At the Science City crossing, south-bound traffic could not avoid a ditch at the rotary as the passageway gets narrowed because of the rush of vehicles waiting to take the right turn towards Park Circus.

The CMDA chief executive officer, Vivek Bhardwaj, blamed the weather for the failure to do patchwork. “We had planned some repairs on Sunday but the heavy showers the night before derailed the plan. If it rains immediately after work, the bitumen will be washed away,” he said.

Shouldn’t the needful have been done before the monsoon? Bhardwaj said it was done but the top layer got washed away after the season’s first showers.

“The agencies entrusted with the job have been asked to mend the road at the earliest free of cost, failing which they will be blacklisted,” said the CEO.

An engineer engaged in one of the projects said that what ailed the Bypass was poor quality of construction material, less bitumen compared with stone chips and incompetence of the CMDA.