Chennai's arterial road, Anna Salai, has caved in once again. There's a 10-foot crater in the road near the DMS junction, right next to the spot of a Metro construction. While no injuries have been reported, this is the third time that a section of Anna Salai has caved-in in recent months.
The Metro Rail MD, the police and other authorities are at the spot to investigate the cave-in and to fix the issue.
According to reports, the section of the road caved in while digging work was happening for the Chennai Metro in the vicinity.
The road reportedly caved-in around 3pm on Friday. Heavy traffic was reported earlier in the day owing to the long weekend on account of Republic Day. The Metro Rail Managing Director as well as other authorities have reportedly rushed to the spot. The roughly 10 feet cave occurred near the pavement.
Chennai Metro Rail Managing Director has stated that the cause of the cave in can be determined only after examination.
Anna Salai, formerly known as Mount Road, an arterial road in Chennai has witnessed multiple cave-ins.
A state-run MTC bus and a car were trapped in a huge crater that suddenly formed on Anna Salai near the Church Park school in April last year. Around 35 passengers, who were on board the bus, reportedly sustained minor injuries in that incident. The cave-in took place owing to tunneling work that being carried out for the Chennai Metro Rail.
At the time, Chennai Metro Rail had attributed the cave-in to loose soil. “Geographically, ours is loose soil. We have tried our level best to tunnel below 20 feet so it doesn't disturb the upper layer of soil. However, metro pipelines and other road construction work makes the soil loose," said Sruthi, PRO at CMRL.
Prior to that, in nearly the same spot – a portion of the road caved in near the Church Park school in Anna Salai in March 2017. The incident which occurred during peak hour traffic threw traffic out of gear.
In December 2015, a giant crater was formed along the Anna Salai-Vijayaraghava Road in Teynampet. On that occasion too, the road cave-in was blamed on the metro construction.
A 10-foot stretch on Poonamallee High Road, another arterial road in Chennai caved in in June 2015 owing to tunnelling work for the Chennai Metro Rail. The cave-in even witnessed a car getting stuck in the crater. However, the occupants in the vehicle escaped unhurt.