A fresh road collapse on Dr Radhakrishnan Salai in Mylapore has exposed the risks of ageing underground infrastructure beneath one of Chennai’s busy urban corridors. A roughly four-foot section near the Royapettah High Road junction gave way on Sunday after an old stormwater drain failed, prompting the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) to begin permanent replacement work.
The Radhakrishnan Salai cave-in is significant because the location has experienced repeated failures. Earlier repairs largely focused on restoring surface movement, while the deteriorating drainage structure remained underground. The latest collapse suggests that treating the road surface without addressing the ageing utility network can leave the underlying risk unresolved. The affected drain is an old brick-built arch structure dating back several decades. Its deterioration has weakened the ground beneath the carriageway, creating a direct safety concern for motorists, buses, pedestrians and nearby businesses. Police temporarily secured the damaged section with cement to keep traffic moving.
The corporation now plans to replace the failed section with a new pipeline measuring about 10 feet. The work is expected to begin at night to limit disruption on the busy corridor. Beyond repairing the immediate defect, the intervention is intended to improve stormwater movement and reduce the likelihood of waterlogging during heavy rainfall. However, the Radhakrishnan Salai cave-in also highlights a broader challenge for Chennai. Much of the city’s drainage network was built in phases over different periods, leaving authorities to manage a patchwork of old masonry drains, newer concrete structures and underground utility corridors. Without systematic inspections, failures can remain invisible until the road above them collapses. The location has already seen a larger failure. In October 2024, around seven feet of the same arterial road gave way after rainfall, with damage to the old stormwater drainage system identified as a contributing factor.
For a city preparing for increasingly intense rainfall, drainage maintenance cannot remain limited to emergency repairs after roads fail. Underground asset mapping, structural inspections and planned replacement of vulnerable sections would offer a more durable approach. The immediate priority is safe completion of the replacement work. Longer term, Chennai needs to move towards preventive infrastructure management, where ageing drains are identified and renewed before they become hazards above ground. That shift would protect mobility, reduce repeated repair costs and strengthen the city’s resilience during the monsoon.
