Too many cars, too little space on Khader Nawaz Khan Road

It is 12 noon, Priyadarshini, a mother of two stands next to her car that she had parked on Wallace Garden Road as the traffic police has locked her sedan. She is trying to reach the police personnel whose contact number was seen stuck on the windshield. “I was left with no choice but to park on the ‘No-Parking’ zone as there was no other place to keep my car. I have come all the way from Anna Nagar for an appointment at a salon,” she says and added "The allotted parking spot where one has to pay Rs 20 for every hour is full in no time.” 

The stretch has the best of luxury brands and restaurant chains. However, the facilities are not enough to handle the footfall. According to the residents, traffic snarls are order of the day. Vaidyalingam a longtime resident of KNK says, “Canopied and clean, this stretch used to be a perfect place for evening strolls. Now one cannot even imagine going out for a walk. There are cars parked haphazardly everywhere. It becomes worse on the weekends. The vehicles are parked right outside our  houses. We then have to call the police to clear them.” 

Old timers can hardly relate to what the area was two decade ago.  It is said that Khader Nawaz Khan Road got its name after a noble in the court of Umdat-ul-Umrah, son of the Nawab of Arcot and the stretch was always occupied by the who’swho of the city. 

“Things changed two decades ago. Earlier, there were huge bungalows and few stores of luxury brands and the cafés but the development in the last 5-7 years have grown multi-fold. Many long term residents have developed the property and sold it for commercial purposes,” says M. Azam, a resident of 20 years. He further adds, “Traffic is a perennial problem here but there are other civic issues that need to be addressed. For instance, there are so many restaurants and they dump the garbage in the dustbins here that overflows within no time.” 

However, there is a multi-level parking system on Wallace Garden Road to ease the issue. The traffic police also take regular rounds of the locality penalising those flouting rules, but the problem persists. “We spend RS 1,000 on an average when we come here. And a fine of 400 plus really burns a hole into our purse,” says Prashanth, a regular on the stretch.