Kasaragod: The first heavy downpour ahead of the monsoon has laid bare the quality of work on NH 66, under construction in Kerala. Just a day after a newly laid stretch caved in at Kooriyad in Malappuram, a section of the service road in Kasaragod collapsed, while cracks surfaced on the main carriageway -- both incidents occurring during Tuesday's extreme rainfall, which dumped over 20.4 cm on the district.

The cave-in was reported near Kalyan Road, between Mavungal and Chemmattamvayal near Kanhangad on the Chengala-Nileshwar stretch. A vigilant motorist who noticed the collapse around 4 am alerted oncoming traffic, averting a major disaster. Later in the day, cracks were found on the main carriageway opposite Christ CMI School near Kalyan Road on the Kannur-bound lane. The stretch on the Chengala-Nileshwar reach is being developed by Hyderabad-based Megha Engineering & Infrastructures Ltd (MEIL).

District Collector K Inbasekar, who visited the site, said cracks had formed along a 53-metre-long and 4.10-metre-wide stretch. "Prima facie, it appears the soil was not properly consolidated (before asphalting), which led to the cracks," he told Onmanorama. The collector was referring to the process of firmly packing down the soil before laying the metal and asphalt layers. If this step is done poorly, gaps remain beneath the surface, weakening the base and making the road prone to damage -- especially during heavy rain.

Inbasekar said the Kannur Project Director of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has ordered an inquiry into the incident. "They will rectify this after proper inquiry," he said. Calls to the Project Director went unanswered.

NHAI had earlier attributed the highway collapse at Kooriyad -- on the Ramanattukara-Valanchery stretch being developed by Hyderabad-based KNR Constructions Ltd -- to heavy rainfall. But the explanation raises uncomfortable questions: is the 600-km highway project -- averaging Rs 100 crore per kilometre -- not engineered to withstand Kerala's seasonal rains?

After the service road collapsed in Kasaragod, traffic was thrown into disarray. Vehicles are being diverted through the west side of the service road. However, with the alternative stretch too narrow to handle the volume, significant congestion has ensued.

This is not the first safety lapse reported on the NH66 worksite in Kasaragod. On May 12, an 18-year-old worker was killed and two others injured when a hillock collapsed during the construction of a retaining wall at Mattalayi near Cheruvathur -- also part of MEIL's segment. There was a drizzle that day.

On October 29, 2022, 13 workers narrowly escaped injury when an underpass under construction at Periya caved in. That project too was executed by MEIL. Experts from the National Institute of Technology (NIT), Karnataka, later concluded that the staging pipes used could not withstand the weight of wet concrete.