Vadodara: For decades now, the rumble of traffic in the city has blended with the dust and disruption of drainage works that seem to stretch endlessly.Roads scarred by repeated cave-ins, dug-up stretches and potholes have turned daily commutes into slow, frustrating journeys. With little traffic regulation and few alternate routes, vehicles crawl through bottlenecks while residents and shop owners cope with dust, delays and dwindling customers. What was meant to repair the city’s drainage network has instead left many neighbourhoods grappling with chaos on the roads.It is not poor road quality but leaking drainage lines that are causing the roads to give way. The problem has become particularly acute in the western parts of the city after the unprecedented floods of 2024.Drainage lines in several areas have been creating underground voids for years. Localities such as Akota, Mujmahuda and Manjalpur have faced the problem for more than 15 years. Ageing drainage pipelines develop leaks that gradually create cavities beneath the road surface due to soil settlement, eventually leading to cave-ins.While the Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) has taken up repair work on priority, officials said there are no clear records showing when many drainage lines were originally laid. “We come to know only when some work has to be carried out due to leakages,” an official said.The floods of 2024 exposed the fragility of the city’s drainage network. In the year following the deluge, multiple cave-ins were reported across the city. The civic body faced criticism as commuters struggled with diversions and traffic snarls caused by drainage repair work. In areas where roads are otherwise in good condition, temporary patchwork is often carried out until the entire drainage line can be replaced.Even BPC Road witnessed cave-ins after the floods despite the installation of a new drainage line through micro-tunnelling. Officials later found that the old pipeline running along the road had not been properly sealed, allowing water to flow through it and cause soil settlement at points where leaks existed. The old line was eventually sealed with concrete to address the problem.VMC executive engineer (drainage projects) Haresh Rathwa said the civic body had already begun large-scale work on the drainage network, which explains the ongoing digging across the city. “We are working simultaneously on 15 stretches so that such problems do not recur in the future,” Rathwa said.Officials added that a comprehensive drainage improvement plan has been prepared for the city. The plan includes nearly 100 projects, ranging from replacing old and damaged pipelines to laying new drainage lines in newly added areas and upgrading existing systems in older neighbourhoods. However, securing funds for these projects remains a major challenge, and the works are being prioritised and submitted for grants accordingly.
