Monday July 23, 2007
Heavy downpour causes sinkhole in Jalan Sultan
By LEE YUNE YEE
KUALA LUMPUR: A heavy afternoon downpour caused a section of the busy Jalan Sultan, close to a City Hall flood mitigation project, to collapse yesterday.
The 4.6m by 1.5m sinkhole caught commuters of the nearby LRT and bus terminal and other road users by surprise.
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Cordoned off: Passers-by looking at the collapsed portion of the walkway in Jalan Sultan yesterday. |
Witnesses said a woman who was walking there slipped and fell into the hole in the incident, which occurred at 3pm yesterday.
She was able to scramble out of the pit with the help of a friend. Both hurriedly left the scene.
A Tenaga Nasional Bhd lamp-post was dislodged from its base in an underground drainage system along the road.
A passer-by contacted the Fire and Rescue Department in Jalan Hang Tuah and a team arrived at the scene several minutes later.
The fire station’s senior officer, Ariff Mohamed Kassim, said they came with 10 firemen and quickly cordoned off the area.
He then contacted the police, Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) and Tenaga Nasional Bhd.
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Close-up: The collapsed sinkhole in Jalan Sultan. |
However, TNB workers later removed the pole for fear it would pose a danger to the public.
DBKL’s public works engineer Kamarunhisham Khalid said, from his observation, the incident could be due to a nearby underground piping project by City Hall.
He said constant vibrations from the project, about 20m from the sinkhole, might have caused the incident.
Kamarunhisham said repair works would start immediately to prevent a recurrence of the incident.
The road has been temporarily closed.
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