SHAH ALAM - Just two weeks after authorities revealed the cause of last year’s sinkhole incident in Masjid India, Kuala Lumpur, another case of land subsidence has emerged, this time along Jalan Bonus.
According to Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL), the latest sinkhole was detected in front of Bombay Jewellery at around 8.39 am on Monday.
Teams from DBKL, Air Selangor, Indah Water Konsortium (IWK) and the Dang Wangi district police were immediately dispatched to the scene to investigate the cause and ensure public safety.
In a statement, DBKL said Jalan Masjid India has been temporarily closed from Lorong Masjid India 4 up to the affected area for public safety.
The city authority added that technical assessments and monitoring are currently underway and updates will be announced from time to time.
The recurrence comes nearly a year after a tragic incident on Aug 23 last year, when an Indian national, G Vijaya Lakshmi, from Kuppam in Andhra Pradesh, went missing after falling into an eight-metre-deep sinkhole at Jalan Masjid India.
The disaster prompted a massive nine-day search and rescue operation but ended in heartbreak when her body was eventually found.
Previously, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Federal Territories) Datuk Seri Dr Zaliha Mustafa said a special task force investigation revealed that last year’s collapse was caused by a corroded sewer pipe and unstable soil conditions, not by limestone as previously believed.
The affected site, she said, is part of the Kenny Hills Formation, which consists of schist rock layers, while the limestone bedrock lies much deeper, around 60 to 70 metres below the surface.
DBKL is currently conducting a comprehensive geotechnical study across major routes in the Golden Triangle using borehole resistivity, Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR), LiDAR and InSAR technologies.
Early results indicate no high-risk zones have been detected so far.
DBKL is expected to release a full public report by the end of this year.