Traffic was disrupted today on the busy circular road here with the collapse of a 25-metre long retaining wall in the heart of the city.
However, there were no reports of casualty as traffic was restricted after cracks developed on the road yesterday.
Deputy Commissioner of Shimla inspected the spot with a team of engineers of Public Works Department and Shimla Municipal Corporation (SMC) and worked out an interim plan for restoring single lane traffic.
A multistoried parking of SMC is under construction beneath the circular road and PWD and SMC engineers are shifting the blame on each other.
While the PWD engineers maintained that massive digging for construction of a parking building led to wall collapse, the municipal engineers said that the retaining wall was not in good shape and they had repeatedly told the PWD to repair the road.
The road had developed cracks and a portion has started to sink due to digging.
The area, where the multistoried building for parking is being developed, is fragile and in 2004 the road had caved in.
The reconstructed road also caved in after few months and the retaining wall was built again.
A major landslide occurred near the High Court on July 15, 2012 endangering the legendary Clarke's hotel building where chambers for lawyers were being constructed and the road to High Court remained closed for more than 15 months.
The construction was stopped but freak landslides continued during rainy season when construction was resumed.
The collapse of the wall caused great hardship to people as the buses were diverted from Khalini and old bus stand and students returning home after examinations had to wait endlessly.
The reconstruction of retaining wall would take quite sometime and the Public Works Department is planning to erect a temporary bridge to provide connectivity as an interim measure.
