Egmore roundabout develops mild dent

Liquid oozes out of the patch near Egmore roundabout. A CMWSSB team inspects it and finds the water and sewage pipelines underneath to be intact. The patch will continue to be monitored

Motorists sidestep a small patch on the extremity of Police Commissioner Office Road that dovetails neatly into the Egmore Roundabout. This small patch had suddenly sunk in, and it is highlighted as if with a marker pen.

Two plastic barricades squat on it. Liquid content has oozed out of it. At first sight, the involvement of a leaky pipeline underneath is suspected. The carriageway has been spritzed adequately for it to glisten in the feeble light of an evening sun. It is the evening of January 24.

Workers and officials of various stripes reporting to different government line agencies begin to gather on the sidewalk. A couple of police personnel from the F2 station are at the scene. There is a knot of CMWSSB workers. A CMWSSB official is on the scene. Another official, higher still, is on the way.

On January 25, there is unmistakable sign the spot had been opened up for inspection.

Later, talking to The Hindu Downtown, a CMWSSB official reveals that after earthwork on the patch, it was found that both drinking water and sewage pipelines underneath that section were intact.

Water had oozed out when the patch developed a depression, and further inspection was going to be undertaken. That was the status of the issue at the time this article went to print.

At the Egmore roundabout, the picture of a “shifting earth” — sometimes gently, as was the case this time, and sometimes heavily — comes up with noticeable regularity.