Joypur (Howrah), February 9 In a major blow to the Centre’s showcase project, the Golden Quadrilateral, a stretch connecting Kolkata to Chennai caved in last night.

The stretch near Howrah had been completed about a year ago. As the road was not too busy last night and the land- slip rate was slow, a major disaster was averted. Even today the subsidence was in progress with hundreds of onlookers watching the destruction in slow motion.

The stretch has now been closed for an indefinite period. Today, the stretch looked like it had been hit by an earthquake. Deep fissures had appeared on the road. Chunks were still breaking off.

This has cast strong doubts on the quality of construction, a crucial issue that slain NHAI engineer Satyendra Dubey had often raised.

A visit to the site revealed that about 600 metres of the highway collapsed at around 11:30 pm last night. A few vehicles overturned, but there were no reports of any loss of life. The slip-in created a 40-foot gorge. The land is still sliding gradually to ground level.

This stretch of the GQ had been executed as a joint venture between two Malaysian firms, RBM and Pati. The project, it was learnt, had been designed by another foreign firm, Inter Continental Technocrats Private Limited (ICT), whose team leader Pakhar Minhas said a report on the accident had been submitted to Lt Col G K Nair, project director, National Highways Authority of India (NHAI). Nair was, however, not in the city.

R S Pandey, legal advisor to RBM, said: ‘‘Until thorough investigations are conducted and reasons for the collapse known, we won’t be able to comment.’’

Sugriv Ray, the driver of one of the trucks which overturned, said: ‘‘I was stuck in a traffic snarl when I noticed trucks and cars behind me moving away. Then I saw parts of the bridge going down bit by bit. I escaped leaving the truck behind. I saw it go down within 15 to 20 minutes.’’ However, another driver, Ram Sanjivani Yadav, was not so quick. He went down with his truck. Luckily, he did not sustain any major injuries.