Three occupants of a Maruti Suzuki Swift had a hair-raising experience when their car was trapped in a crater formed when a portion of Poonamallee High Road collapsed on Friday.
The incident occurred as a result of underground tunnelling work as part of the Chennai Metro Rail project.
The car was heading to Chennai Central station opposite Madras Medical College when the road suddenly caved in. The driver stopped the vehicle on time, but the chassis was dented when it hit the hard surface. On Thursday night, the road had caved in at the same place due to tunnelling work and a metal sheet had been placed temporarily over it. The car was subsequently taken from the cavity using two cranes.
Officials of Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL) said, “The road caved in because the soil underneath was loose and the road surface collapsed, unable to withstand the pressure from the tunnel boring machine (TBM). We will repair the area soon. If the car owner has to seek compensation, he has to approach the contractor – Afcons, the firm in charge of tunnelling work.”
“There was a bus behind the car. Had the bus been caught instead of the car, there would have been major trouble,” said an eye-witness, C. Geetha, who works in a nearby store. Currently, tunnel boring machines (TBM) are drilling through the earth from Madras High Court to Chennai Central and this work is being carried out on a joint venture basis by Afcons and Transtonnelstroy.
This is not the first time that tunnelling work has caused a cave-in on a major road.
