A portion of the arterial Anna Salai in Chennai caved in near the Thousand Lights mosque on Sunday afternoon at around 1.30 p.m., pulling down a bus and a car.

Thirty five passengers were evacuated immediately from the bus (number 25G), and no injuries have been reported. The bus driver told a television channel that the bus had stopped at a bus stop when it began to sink as if the air was let out of the tyres. The passengers were asked to get down immediately.

The fire department later pulled the car and the bus out using cranes. The police have diverted the traffic on this stretch. Vehicles moving towards DMS and Teynampet are being diverted via Royapettah clock tower, Lloyds Road, and Cathedral Road.

The cave-in occurred during tunnel boring work for the Chennai Metro rail that is being carried out between Thousand Lights and AG- DMS.

The Chennai Metro Rail officials said the road caved-in when they were carrying out cut head intervention, a process done as part of tunnel boring work.

Two tunnel boring machines have been boring in this stretch for several months now. A few weeks ago, the tunneling caused a foam leakage very close to the site where the cave-in happened today.

Police have cordoned off the area. Cracks have appeared on the pavement along the stretch.

City Traffic Police have diverted vehicle moving towards DMS and Teynampet via Royapettah Clock Tower, Lloyds Road and Cathedral Road.

The bus has been lifted and moved away from the spot at about 4.30 p.m.

(This article was first published in The Hindu)

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