CHENNAI: The massive road cave-in at Royapuram remained unattended for the second consecutive day as it took a whole day for the CMWSSB officials to inspect the 100-year-old underground sewage pipe, which had exploded on Monday afternoon. It is believed the pipe explosion was caused due to excessive gas concentration.
Buses and lorries were diverted through West Mada Church Road as a major part of the MS Koil Street, colloquially called as Kalmandam Road which leads to Ennore, caved in. Due to this, heavy traffic jam persisted on Monday and Tuesday.
“Due to clogging of sewage, excess pressure must have been applied from the pumping station. Thus, the part where the gas concentration was higher, exploded,’’ said a CMWSSB official.
On Monday at 3 pm, traffic police personnel spotted the road caving-in. “It was only a small part initially, but at around 3.45, a massive chunk of the road went inside,’’ said a traffic police official, who was manning the Kalmandapam junction at the time. Immediately, the whole spot was cordoned and traffic was diverted, said the personnel.
According to police, once the road caved in, excess sewage from the pipe leaked all over the place. Immediately, Corporation and Metro Water officials arrived at the spot.
“While we inspected the spot, we found two big openings in the pipe. We are currently working to fix the pipe which was built during the British period,’’ said the CMWSSB official, adding that only after that, they could come to a plan to fix the road.
The official said the pipe would be fixed by Wednesday night and the road is likely to be open for all vehicles again from Thursday morning.