Traffic between Vandalur-Guduvanchery irks commuters

CHENNAI: Traffic between Vandalur-Guduvanchery on the GST Road because of the newly inaugurated Kilambakkam bus terminus irks the regular commuters.

As the Kilambakkam bus terminus started to operate fully the GST Road has become congested during the peak hours. Though the National Highway was widened into eight lanes the traffic is uncontrollable and it is heavily affected during the early mornings and evenings when all the buses enter and exit from the Kilambakkam bus terminus at the same time.

The commuters said that while the bus drivers had been ordered to enter the terminal and drop off the passengers, many bus drivers were not entering the terminal and stopping on the NH to drop off the passengers. This creates more traffic and NH gets blocked completely.

Another main reason for the traffic is the private buses. Most of the private bus offices are still functioning in Koyambedu and the buses when coming from Koyembedu stop at least six junctions on the National Highway to pick up the passengers. Since many private buses occupy the National Highway it creates a huge traffic during the peak hours, especially in the evening and early morning.

Andrew, an activist from Vandalur said that since all the buses have now been operating from the Kilambakkam terminus this creates more traffic mainly because there is not enough police force to control the traffic. Since Kilambakkam comes under the Tambaram police limit here the traffic police force is less when compared with Chennai. The armed reserve constables are being used to control the traffic but they cannot manage it during the peak hours, he said.

"What is the point in using two kinds of buses to commute the same distance. Earlier a commuter used the express bus to ply between southern districts and Koyambedu, now they have to use another local bus from Kilambakkam to reach Koyambedu," said D Vijayakumar, a resident of Tambaram. Public should be given a choice to use both Kilambakkam and Koyambedu and they should not be forced to rely on one particular terminal, he said.

The commuters feel that traffic can be managed if the Perungalathur flyover work gets completed fully and the government should look into it and speed up the construction process. They added that the foot-over bridge work planned in Kilambakkam should also be completed quickly.

It may be noted that the state transport minister S S Sivasankar maintained taht the public would soon get used to the Kilambakkam bus terminus.