Sewage leak leads to road cave in at Choolaimedu, none hurt

The incident occurred at around 11 am when a garbage lorry was crossing the spot. “Due to the weight of the lorry, the spot near an underground sewage manhole caved in. The lorry driver was lucky enough to escape without being trapped in the pit. The road could have been damaged already and weight of the lorry triggered the damage,” a shop owner near the spot said.

In order to alert the approaching vehicles, residents had parked a tricycle above the pit so that the vehicles can avoid the danger. Some residents also stood by the pit to warn drivers.

When DT Next visited the spot, a private school van was trying to cross the damaged portion but shop owners and residents reprimanded the driver and asked him to take another route.

Meanwhile, Chennai Corporation engineers were alerted, who rushed to the spot to fill earth inside the three-feet-wide pit. “Soil was filled inside the pit to resume vehicle movement on the road. The damaged portion will be permanently repaired,” a Chennai Corporation official said.

The official added that the underground sewage lines in the locality were constructed several years ago and the seepage of sewage would have loosened the soil thus resulting in caving in.

In a similar incident on September 3, Fourth Avenue, one of the major roads in Anna Nagar, caved in, affecting peak hour traffic. As the road caving incidents are occurring frequently in several parts of the city, the civic body officials are blaming cracks on the sewage lines instead of findinga solution.

However, the officials claimed that the Metro Water has proposed a project to identify damaged underground sewer lines across the city and replace themwith new lines.