CHENNAI: Two road cave-ins were reported in Velachery and Kolathur in two days, with officials saying that the incidents occurred due to damage to an underground water pipeline and ongoing metro rail tunnelling works, respectively.
On Sunday, a portion of Velachery Main Road towards Guru Nanak College caved in following damage to an underground drinking water pipeline running along the road. Police officials said the cave-in was limited to a depth of 1 to 1.5 ft. CMWSSB officials, who excavated a large portion of the road to access and repair the damaged pipeline, said the road would be restored by Sunday night.
Commercial and heavy vehicles were diverted at Vijayanagar Junction, Concorde Junction and Erikarai Junction owing to the work. Two-wheelers and four-wheelers are allowed to ply as usual on one-half of the road. The traffic is expected to return to normalcy by Sunday midnight.
In another incident, a section of Srinivasa Nagar 5th Cross Street at Kolathur caved in to a depth of around 6 ft on Saturday evening, due to the ongoing Chennai Metro Rail tunnelling works.
An autorickshaw parked in the area partially fell in the collapsed portion. No injuries were reported. The tunnelling work was being carried out between Senthil Nagar and Villivakkam as part of CMRL’s Phase II Corridor 5 project. The collapsed stretch was restored with concrete on Saturday night.
