CHENNAI: The Greater Chennai Traffic Police's (GCTP) experiment "to ease traffic congestion and regulate vehicular movement" by introducing traffic changes on Rajiv Gandhi Salai (OMR) choked the stretch on Wednesday.

While OMR is prone to slow-moving traffic, several commuters said that Wednesday was one of the worst days to drive on OMR because of the hasty changes implemented by GCTP.

The GCTP announced the changes for September 23 on its social media page only on Tuesday night, throwing regular commuters off guard.

The new changes prohibited three U-turns on the OMR—the U-turn near Geetham Restaurant, the U-turn near BSR Mall and the U-turn near World Trade Centre.

Vehicles from Mettukuppam proceeding towards Sholinganallur were prohibited from making U-turn near Geetham restaurant and made to proceed up to Perungudi toll booth and make a U-turn there. Vehicles from 200 feet radial road towards Sholinganallur were prohibited from making a U-turn near BSR mall and were asked to proceed upto Perungudi toll booth to make U-turn. Vehicles towards SRP Tools junction from Kandanchavadi were prohibited from making a U-turn near World Trade Centre.

By mid-day, however, traffic was reverted to the earlier arrangement as the sudden change choked the IT corridor.

"Travelling on OMR is a nightmare these days. A new record for me today. Siruseri to Guindy in 2.5 hours. Total waste of time and fuel. City planners should be penalised for this," a vehicle user posted on social media.

S Gokul of Velachery, a regular commuter to Sholinganallur, said that his vehicle was stuck on the 200 feet Radial Road for over half an hour.

"We sent personnel on the ground and cleared the traffic. There was also a lot of indiscipline from vehicle users, like wrong-side driving, which added to the chaos," a traffic enforcement official said.