Chennai: New fissures have opened up near the site in Chennai whence a mere two days ago a state-owned bus and a car fell in through a gaping cleft on the city's arterial Anna Salai.

Fresh cracks were noticed on Tuesday morning on Anna Salai near the Gemini bridge and while no accidents have been reported as yet, the traffic police have nonetheless cordoned off the aforesaid section of the road.

There were reports of traffic being diverted away from Anna Salai, in turn affecting parts of Nungambakkam and Teynampet. Metro officials are on the spot and the metro construction work has been stalled. Sruthi Ravindran, PRO, Chennai Metro Rail informed that the “minor cracks” appeared due to settlement work being done for the older craters.

“We are drilling to find out if there is hollowness inside in the road, and that is why the cracks have appeared. After the inspection, the traffic police will open up traffic,” she said. Confirming that the crack happened around 9 am, she said that the metro will do grouting to inspect the roads today.

On Sunday, a Honda City car and a state-run MTC bus were trapped in a huge crater that had suddenly formed on the road near the Church Park school.

Around 35 people were inside the bus, and sustained minor injuries. Some of them were taken to the Royapettah Government Hospital. In the past few months, several such small cracks have appeared on the road in Anna Salai, prompting the Chennai Traffic Police to ask motorists to be careful and take alternate routes. On March 30, similar cracks appeared and hampered traffic near Church Park school. In December 2015, a giant crater formed along the Anna Salai-Vijayaraghava Road in Teynampet. At that time, the road cave-in was blamed on the ongoing metro construction.

A 10-foot stretch on Poonamallee High Road, another arterial road in Chennai caved in in June 2015 owing to tunnelling work for the Chennai Metro Rail. The cave-in even witnessed a car getting stuck in the crater. However, the occupants in the vehicle escaped unhurt.