India, March 30 -- Last week's borewell drilling incident that triggered water leakage into the Shivajinagar-Swargate underground Metro tunnel in Pune may appear, at first glance, like an isolated act of negligence. It is not. Within days, a similar lapse surfaced in Mumbai, where an illegal borewell on a government plot damaged a stretch of the underground Metro Line 3 tunnel near Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, leading to the suspension of a civic official.

Two cities. Two incidents. One underlying problem: India's fast-growing urban centres are building critical infrastructure without a clear understanding of what lies beneath their own ground.

This concern becomes sharper in Pune today, because the city is not just expanding o...