Chennai: A road cave-in on Velachery Main Road near Phoenix Marketcity brought traffic to a standstill on the weekend before Diwali. Metrowater officials said they received information about the cave-in around 9am and found that an old 150mm main pipeline had developed a slow leak, weakening the road surface. Around 7m of the pipeline was damaged, and 4m was replaced by Sunday evening. Officials said they would complete the remaining pipeline replacement work by 8pm.Many people traveling to a mall in Velachery were stuck in traffic. Many took to social media to warn commuters not to use Velachery Main Road. “Usually, travel from one end to another takes 10 mins, but today I was stuck for 90 mins. I had to attend a meeting, but then I attended it online sitting in my car,” said G Sunil from Chromepet, who had to travel to a mall for a meeting.The cave-in and barricades put up around the damaged stretch caused heavy traffic congestion, inconveniencing motorists travelling between Guindy and Velachery during the festive weekend. The incident comes amid concerns about road cave-ins caused by bursts in Metro Water pipelines, with similar incidents reported on OMR, Perambur Barracks Road, and GNT Road over the past two months.“The last couple of incidents in Area 6 (Thiru-Vi-Ka-Nagar zone) occurred in arch sewers, which are very old sewer mains. We have identified vulnerable sewer mains, which will be replaced in due course. We have around 15km of arch sewers that will be replaced with ductile iron (DI) pipes,” said Metrowater MD T Anand.
