CHENNAI: A portion of Radhakrishnan Salai near Mylapore caved in about seven feet following a brief spell of rain on Monday night. This led to traffic disruption during peak hours the following day.
Sources said the mishap happened in an area where the Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL) had carried out underground electric cable installations for the Mylapore-Mandaveli metro extension recently. The workers had levelled the dug-up area after completing the installations a week ago.
Just hours before the collapse, authorities had poured the wet mix to relay the road. It is suspected that machinery used during the process may have damaged the old arch stormwater drains (SWD) underneath.
A corporation official said a combination of the rainfall and the SWD damage led to the cave-in. A technical team is currently assessing the site. The official said they would finish relaying the damaged road and repair the SWD within a week.
Residents in the area lamented that the appearance of sinkholes on the road during rainfall has become more frequent now. They attribute this to inadequate planning by the departments involved in road projects.
Every year, RK Salai is dug up for various purposes, including the installation of metrowater pipelines, Tangedco cables, and now work by the CMRL. Each excavation takes months to restore, and the quality of the repair often does not meet acceptable standards, they said.
S Anthony (60), a resident in the locality, said the authorities should wind up working on one side of the road before moving to the other side. “Here, they dug up a wide section of the road, and before relaying it, they have already begun digging on the opposite side. Poor planning is evident as no space is even available for the pedestrians to walk across,” he added.
Traffic snarls have also become commonplace on RK Salai after the CMRL work commenced. An auto driver noted that navigating the road during peak hours now takes an average of 20-30 minutes.
A corporation official explained that while other departments excavate areas three feet wide, the CMRL dug a much larger area to place around 16 cables underground. When questioned about the frequent road damage during rains, the official assured that measures would be taken to prevent such incidents in the future.
Pvt School building on Santhome road develops cracks
A private school building in Santhome High Road has developed visible cracks after the CMRL used a tunnel boring machine for work near the school building in September.
CMRL has commenced inspection of the structure since parents of the students raised safety concerns, but preliminary investigations revealed that the structure was safe. The school has been closed for a few days temporarily to repair the cracks in the structure