Just two days after a state-owned bus and a car fell into a huge crater on Chennai’s arterial Anna Salai, fresh cracks have emerged not very far away from the site of the previous accident.
According to Chennai Metro officials, more fissures on the road were noticed on Tuesday morning on Anna Salai near the Gemini bridge. No accidents have been reported and the traffic police have cordoned off the section of the road.
There are also reports of traffic being diverted away from Anna Salai, affecting parts of Nungambakkam and Teynampet. Metro officials are on the spot and the metro construction work has been stalled.
Sruthi Ravindran, PRO of the Chennai Metro Rail, told The News Minute that the “minor cracks” appeared due to settlement work being done for the older craters.
We are drilling to find out if there is hollowness inside in the road, and that is why the cracks have appeared. After the inspection, the traffic police will open up traffic.Ravindran
Confirming that the crack happened around 9 am, she said that the metro will do grouting to inspect the roads today.
On Sunday, a state-run bus and a car met with an accident after Chennai’s prominent Anna Salai caved in. A Honda City car and an MTC bus were trapped in a huge crater that had suddenly formed on the road near the Church Park school.
Around 35 people were inside the bus, and sustained minor injuries. Some of them were taken to the Royapettah Government Hospital.
In the past few months, several such small cracks have appeared on the road in Anna Salai, prompting the Chennai Traffic Police to ask motorists to be careful and take alternate routes.
On 30 March, similar cracks appeared and hampered traffic near Church Park school. In December 2015, a giant crater was formed along the Anna Salai-Vijayaraghava Road in Teynampet. On that occasion to, 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.
(Published in an arrangement with The News Minute)
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