Chennai: The arterial Grand Southern Trunk (GST) Road caved in about three feet on Saturday morning hitting traffic hard and triggering a blame game between two state water agencies on who caused it.
The cave-in occurred around 7.30 am when loose soil on GST Road, a by-product of Chennai metro water laying underground pipes for the Chembarambakkam water project, near Chromepet railway station gave way. Witnesses attributed the cave-in to the copious amount of water that had seeped to the surface, courtesy of an underground leakage, causing the soil to loosen.
Metro water, which has been working on a Rs 100 crore project intended to supply drinking water from Chembarambakkam lake to residents of Pallavaram, Chromepet and Tambaram via Porur, Kundrathur, Pozhichalur and Pammal, had only a week earlier completed laying underground pipes in the area and covered the dug up surface with loose soil afterwards.
However, a pipeline laid by the Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage (TW AD) Board, supplying Palar water to the municipality, and which runs along the newly laid pipes, cracked and began seeping water into the soil thus causing the cave in.
Traffic flow into the city on GST Road was affected for a few hours as authorities grappled with the problem. With traffic congestion mounting, cops placed barricades to help authorities determine the extent of the problem.
Pallavapuram municipality commissioner K. Sivakumar told mediapersons that the TWAD board was responsible for the repair as it was their pipe line that had broken. “However, since it is also a highway, repair work can only happen during the night time and we expect the problem to be rectified in two days,” he said.
TWAD board officials, however, blamed Metro Water for the leakage. “The pipeline had cracked during Metro Water work. We have covered the leakage with mud but traffic will be affected for at least two days,” said an official.
The state highways department, which is responsible for the maintenance of GST Road, put the ball in the court of the TWAD board. “The road is damaged. Since it was Saturday, there was lesser traffic. It will be worse on Monday morning, if the problem is not rectified. But we will not be able to carry patchwork unless the pipeline laying work is entirely complete,” said an official.
However, the fall out of this cave-in will be truly felt by not motorists, but residents of Chromepet East. Residents of Nehru Nagar, Hasthinapuram and other adjacent localities will now not have drinking water supply for at least four days, officials said.
“We will make arrangements for additional private tankers to ply water to these areas,” said a municipality official. But residents are resigned to their fate as they said this was not the first time that they have not had supply of water. “We get water supply once in 15 days. Even if the pipeline was not broken, we have been living without water supply because officials tell us that Palar has gone dry. We buy water for domestic purposes from private tankers and drinking water from can suppliers at Rs 30 or 35,” said R. Sarojini, a resident of Venkatram Nagar near Hasthinapuram.
“The only fall out is that can suppliers may now raise rates since they know our areas will not get drinking water supply from the municipality until this problem is resolved,” she added. Pallavapuram Municipality has been struggling with drinking water supply issues, a problem that officials acknowledge. However, they are hopeful that if the Chembarambakkam water project is realised, the issues will be addressed.
