Bus, car trapped as Chennai road caves-in

Chennai, Apr 9: An MTC bus and a car plunged into a huge crater that was formed in the middle of the Anna Salai, near Anna Flyover, around 2pm on Sunday. No one was injured.

According to Chennai Metro Rail Limited sources, the incident happened due to the impact of a tunnel boring machine which was drilling beneath Anna Salai, a few metres besides the spot where the road caved in. The accident happened around 50 feet from a cave-in that happened a few days ago near the flyover.

The Anna Square-Vadapalani bus (25G) has stopped at the bus stop. The driver felt some movement and he thought it was a tyre puncture. When he peeped out, he saw the road caving in. The driver asked the passengers to get down immediately. After the passengers got down, the bus started to sink.

A car passing by also got trapped. The car belongs to a Mogappair resident.

As the road continued to sink, the police cordoned off the area and diverted the traffic. There was a traffic jam on Kamarajar Salai as Anna Salai traffic was diverted via the main road along the beach.

Police cordoned off the stretch from White's Road turning to the foot of the flyover on Anna Salai.

He said, "This is the first time such an accident has happened in Chennai though metro rail work has been going on since 2009. We will use this as a learning experience and all precautions will be taken to prevent such incidents."

The minister said work was progressing on a war footing to remove the trapped vehicles and repair the road so that traffic could be restored by Monday evening.

Later, the bus and the car were removed from the crater using cranes.