Steps to decongest Chennai’s roads in full swing

At a time, when the number of vehicles is meteorically on the rise in Chennai, unauthorised parking has added to the city’s infrastructure burden, and contributed to traffic snags. Although the civic body and traffic police personnel are in the process of cracking down on illegal parkers frequently, the issue remains unresolved. Sources say a total of 49 lakh vehicles ply in the city and haphazard parking is among the chief contributors to traffic congestion. 

Main roads in areas like Anna Nagar, Poonamallee High Road, Vadapalani and Kodambakkam constantly witness such traffic jams inconveniencing motorists and pedestrians. In fact, around 150 parking lots are being managed by the Tamil Nadu Ex-servicemen Corporation, while around 600 parking lots are under Special Purpose Vehicle division managed by Corporation of Chennai (COC).  

When contacted, Saidai Duraisamy, the Mayor, (CoC) said the issue would come to an end soon as the Corporation had identified zones for building parking lots to ease the traffic congestion. “Tender to construct parking lots has already been floated and works would be undertaken shortly,” he added.

Repair works to ready the roads post the floods are also taking off in top gear. L Nanthakumar, Superintendent Engineer, Bus Route and Road (Corporation of Chennai) said that road repairs in some arterial stretches like Alwarthirunagar, Virugambakkam and Koyambedu had already commenced. 

“The process of identifying damaged roads is ongoing. A majority of the work takes place during the late night when traffic is minimal,” he said. The official added that road repairs would be completed by the end of the month. Another official, on condition of anonymity, said so far the Corporation had completed re-laying roads for around 12 km and work on another 12 km would be taken up in the next phase shortly.