What is in news : Delhi records an unprecedented rainfall this season and an increase in incidents of road cave-ins across the city.

What causes a portion of the road to cave in :

• Look like a hole in the ground
• Product of the incessant rain
• Continuous rain leads to overflowing of drains, which can cause leaks in the pipeline
• When a pipeline leaks and water from the pipeline flows into the layers of earth around it, the earth starts to erode and with time, it gets washed away with the water in the pipeline.
• Eventually, the portion of the road over it collapses because of the erosion

How can such cave-ins be avoided :

• Integrity of the pipelines would have to be checked
• Creating a system wherein the leakage can be plugged earlier on
• Installing a system that checks the flow at the start point and one at the endpoint, would be able to help authorities know that there is a leak
• If the leakage is plugged early, the cave-in can be avoided