Chennai: Light Sunday traffic mitigates situation, passengers mostly unhurt

Chennai: A portion of arterial Anna Salai near the US consulate caved in on Sunday afternoon trapping an MTC bus with 35 passengers and a car. The crew and passengers of the bus got down before the bus sank further into the black hole while the car driver, who had to be pulled out by onlookers, did not suffer a scratch.

The second incident in recent times resulted in traffic snarls on the major intersection for about an hour even on a Sunday, but the situation was brought under control after the south-bound traffic on Anna Salai was diverted.

Attributing the incident to tunnelling work undertaken by Chennai Metro Rail Limited, a MTC spokesperson told DC that the incident had resulted in very minor injuries among a few bus passengers. “There was no damage to the bus travelling on the Anna Square – Vadapalani route. In fact, the bus (25-G cut service) was back and plying on the route on Sunday evening itself. All the 35 passengers, including eight women and two children, could come out safely after the bus driver had alerted them,” the spokesperson said.

Attributing the incident to tunneling work undertaken by Chennai Metro Rail Limited, a MTC spokesperson told Deccan Chronicle that the incident had resulted in very minor injuries among a few bus passengers.

“There was no damage to the bus travelling on the Anna Square – Vadapalani route. In fact, the bus (25-G cut service) was back and plying on the route on Sunday evening itself. All the 35 passengers, including eight women and two children, could come out safely after the bus driver alerted them,” the spokesperson said.

The road had suffered an incident last week too when foam came out from a crevice. Two hours after Sunday’s incident, the city police had retrieved both vehicles.

“We removed the car using a crane at around 3.25 pm. Half an hour later, the bus was also pulled out from the crater,” said a police official. “As the bus started going down I thought it was due to a puncture. Then I noticed the bus was going down into a pit on the road. I jumped out immediately and asked all the passengers to come out,” said bus driver Gunaseelan, who had put in more than 25 years of service driving MTC buses.

The car, a Honda City driven by Dr Pradeep (32) of West Mogappair, was moving alongside the bus when the road caved in. The doctor told the police he was returning from Gopalapuram when the incident happened.

Motorists and general public present at the site expressed shock over the repeated occurrence of such incidents. A. Javeed, a motorist said, “Since it was a Sunday, there was not much of traffic. The situation would have been worse if it had happened on a week day.”