Clearing a sand spill at the midnight hour on Thiru-Vi-Ka bridge

A lorry had left a trail of sand — around half-a-ton, on Thiru-Vi-Ka Bridge -- forcing a mini skid loader to the road to clear it

A mini skid loader seemed to have strayed on to Thiru-Vi-Ka bridge in Adyar. Any layman who has ever seen the machine in Chennai would likely immediately identify it with the beach.

The machine is usually trusted to combing through beach sands for litter. On the night of January 5, the midnight almost at the door, the skid loader was working with sand — sand inadvertently spilt on Thiru-Vi-Ka bridge. At a pace a little higher than a motorised wheelchair, it went up and down the patch, and feeding the gathered sand to a waiting JCB.

An hour and a half ago, a lorry had left a trail of sand — around half-a-ton, according to someone associated with the work.

Following this mishap, a posse of traffic police personnel from the Adyar station had descended on the scene. Reportedly, what followed was a team effort from Metro Rail and Greater Chennai Corporation to attend to the exigency.

The fact that this patch was part of the route for the Chennai Marathon, scheduled for the next day (January 6), brought added urgency to the exercise.