Tamil Nadu - Chennai   

Take this road at your own risk

By P. Oppili

CHENNAI, OCT. 11. Meshak, 42, lost a leg some days ago. Blame it on the Velachery- Tambaram Road. Trying to negotiate a pothole on the ravaged road a fortnight ago, he was thrown off his two-wheeler and run over by a car. His leg had to be amputated.

The accident is just one example of the serious problems that motorists and road users face every day on the stretch between Vijaya Nagar bus terminus, Velachery and Thorapakkam Road junction.

There's a bridge out here, one side of which has been thrown open to traffic. But the road from Vijaya Nagar terminus to Thorapakkam-Pallavaram radial road junction has not been laid properly, causing huge problems.

V. Manoj Joy, president, Srinivasa Nagar Welfare Association, Ullagaram-Puzhudhivakkam Municipality, said the road was so bad that two-wheeler riders were coming down with back problems.

His daughter fell ill two weeks ago and had to be hospitalised. But, "We were not able to admit her to a good hospital at Velachery. Owing to the bad roads, I was forced to admit her to a nearby hospital," he said.

A. Thandavaroyan, a resident of Srinivasa Nagar, said before work on the bridge began, there were no potholes and the traffic flowed smoothly. Today, he's a man with no leave left: he's exhausted it all because of the physical problems sparked by the bad roads.

The welfare association members tried meeting the railway authorities to ask them to at least fill the potholes. The officials assured them of help. But nothing had been done so far, he said.

Gateway to suburbs

This stretch is actually the gateway to suburbs such as Madipakkam, Pallikaranai and Medavakkam, and in the last few years, the number of vehicles using it had increased manifold.

S. Kumararaja, general secretary of the Federation of Velachery Welfare Associations, said vehicles from a private company and an apartment complex were cutting across Velachery-Tambaram road, choking traffic both near the Vijaya Nagar terminus and on the main Road during peak hours.

The Highways department should provide a service road from the Vijayanagar junction so that vehicles could take a `U' turn under the bridge. This would certainly ease the congestion on the stretch, he said.

The Velachery-Taramani Road stretch between Old Mahabalipuram Road and Vijayanagar is also in poor shape because of the frequent digging; further diversion of buses along Perungudi bypass is causing traffic jams near the American International School, Taramani.

State Highways officials told this newspaper they were converting the road from four lanes to six lanes from Vijaya Nagar terminus up to Thorapakkam Road junction.

The widening had begun and would be completed in the next two months, they said.

No street lights

It was not only the road, which poses a serious threat to road users, but also the absence of street lights, which makes driving after dark a hazardous affair.

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