The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Reader's Mail

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Feb 20, 2006

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Reader's Mail

Traffic snarl at key junctions

With the political parties having begun election-related work by organising meetings and rallies, vehicle movement has considerably increased in the past two weeks. On January 25 there was virtually no traffic police either at RKM School, T. Nagar or at the junction of Pothys/Nalli to regulate traffic, sparking a traffic snarl. It took nearly 25 minutes for vehicles headed to Mambalam to cross the junction. This is also the case even at strategic locations such as Anna flyover on Anna Salai. The absence of proper regulation and non-functioning of traffic signals cause a huge amount inconvenience to the vehicle users, not to mention the time and fuel wasted.

N. Vijayaraghavan,

West Mambalam

Need to increase

bus frequency

The services on route No. 12C between Saligramam and Mylapore are most erratic. Though the time chart at the Saligramam bus stand indicates that the service will be operated at an interval of 20 minutes, the waiting time to catch a bus is a minimum of 45 minutes. The frequency needs to be increased by adding additional buses, as two of the buses have already been converted as M12B from the existing 12C fleet.

Besides, for issuing tickets, the buses are detained another ten minutes en route to Vadapalani bus stand increasing the running time. The same situation prevails on the return journey also. Earlier, the time taken for a bus on this route to Mylapore and back was approximately one hour ten minutes. Now, due to the increased volume of traffic on this route it takes one and a half hours, and during traffic jams two hours or more.

Moreover, between Kodambakkam Power House and Thambiah Reddy Road in West Mambalam, there are a great number of stops. By reducing the number of stops, the running time can be cut greatly.

It will be of great help for the T. Nagar bound passenger if the route Nos. M27 (T.Nagar to CMBT) buses are diverted from Virugambakkam to go via Saligramam, Vadapalani, Rangarajapuram and West Mambalam to reach T.Nagar bus stand, at least during peak hours, so that the abnormal delay and the overcrowding on 12C route can be curtailed to an extent; already a number of buses are plying towards T.Nagar through Arcot Road and North Usman Road.

S. Rajan,

Saligrammam

Re-lay road, get rid of cattle

The stretch of road between Porur and Vadapalani is really in very bad shape after the monsoon rains.

Added to this, cattle roam freely right from Porur up to Vadapalani. Now one can imagine how difficult it is to drive a vehicle in that stretch. Cannot the authorities take steps to at least make the road "cattle free."

A.T. Balasubramanian,

Porur

Provide direct bus

service

There is no direct bus service from Balaji Nagar to Ambattur. Residents have to change buses at Tambaram to get to government offices and to private concerns. It is a long felt need of the residents of Madambakkam for direct bus service from Balaji Nagar to Ambattur, which would cater to the needs of office goers who now have to change buses at Tambaram for Ambattur. I request the MTC to consider my suggestion and do the needful.

M. Krishnaswamy,

Madambakkam

A road that's

well-maintained

The Mount-Poonamallee road between Porur junction and Kumanchavadi is well maintained for the free flow of even the heavy vehicles. I, on behalf of the public, convey my thanks to the authorities concerned. The damage due to the recent rains was also rectified in a short period of time. But the public should co-operate to keep the road open for the free flow of vehicles. Very often, the heavy vehicles are parked on either sides of the road between Kattupakkam and Kumananchavadi hinder free movement and this leads to accidents. During Amavasai, pumpkins and coconuts are scattered on the road, posing a threat especially to the two wheelers. Will the public realise the need to show good sense?

T. Manoharan,

Valasarawakkam

Widen culvert at Chitlapakkam

Chitlapakkam Second main road is a state highways road. There is a road culvert at Chitlapakkam Second Main road opposite to Government High School, with only a few bricks stacked to act as a protective wall on both ends of the culvert.

The width of the Chitlapakkam Second Main road is more than that of the culvert, and hence there is a pit at the end of the culvert. Three weeks back a four-wheeler fell into this pit. The pit is a big danger for road users. We request the State Highways authorities to widen the culvert and construct a parapet wall on both sides of the culvert.

P. Viswanathan,

Chitlapakkam Residents Associations'

Coordination Committee

Provide subway at Ambattur

There is heavy rail traffic in the Chennai-Arakonam sector, and as a result of this the railway gates are frequently closed. Commuters have to cross the railway track risking their lives. The Ambattur market is located near Ambattur railway station, and people in and around Ambattur areas who want to visit the market have to cross the railway gate No. LC6.

Even bodies are taken through this gate to burial ground. Residents have been representing for years to the railways and district authorities for construction of a subway but so far no action has been taken. Goods trains are held up for hours for signal clearance, which also affects the commuters.

T. Gunaseelan,

Ambattur

Lamps not

functioning

A tall lamp post (H1 mast) with 15 lamps near the Simpson bus stop (close to the Chindatripet MRTS over bridge) is not functioning for the past eight months. Will the authorities take corrective steps?.

K. Balaji,

Anna Salai

Water mixed with sewage

The drinking water supplied through the Metrowater pipe connections in 5th, 6th, IInd Main Road East, of West Velachery, Dn 153A, Mahalakshmi Nagar is contaminated since October last due to mixing of sewage water with the drinking water. We brought this to the notice of the authorities October 8, 2005 and November 12, 200 at the monthly Grievance Committee at Zone X of Area Engineer's Office. The officials promised to do the needful, after the rains were over. Now, the rains are over and the level of sewage water has also reduced in the sewerage pipeline.

But till date nothing has been done to locate the defective point. Because of this we are denied drinking water through the residential pipeline. Even the roadside tanks No 10195, 10207 & 12570 for the above streets are not filled up regularly.

We hope that the CMWSSB staff will give top priority to this problem and restore drinking water supply to us.

K. Rajagopaln,

Adambakkam

Culvert poses danger for unwary

The existing culvert connecting Sabarinagar and Sabarinagar Extension, Mugalivakkam is in a bad shape. The deep pits created by the recent floods on either side of the culvert, particularly on the Sabarinagar Extension area, are a potential death trap for unwary motorists and passers by, especially at night.

There has been no action, either by the local bodies concerned or by the Local Welfare Association to get the existing culvert replaced by a new culvert or at least to fill pits with debris as a temporary measure.

A. Rathinam,

Mugalivakkam, Porur

Make a Chennai a zero-carbon city

Re the news item in your edition of January 19, about the projects presented by 50 schools to make Chennai greener and ultimately pollution-free.

In achieving the above objective the first and foremost is to shift the lorry sheds within the city limits, and more particularly in the School Zone areas, to the outskirts of the city.

This has already been done in Mumbai, Bangalore etc. Ten-wheeled heavily loaded lorries are parked indiscriminately in streets where many schools are located, namely on Pedariar Koil Street, Xavier Street in Broadway and Seven Wells area.

This causes enormous problems, especially for school-going children and the aged. I appeal to the authorities to arrange for shifting the lorry sheds immediately for a "Zero Carbon City".

G. Narasimhan,

Sevenwells

Park in Adyar an eyesore

I go for a morning walk in the park-cum playground at the southern end of 5th Street of Padmanabha Nagar, Adyar. It is quite spacious and located in a good area, but the playground and the gym building are badly maintained.

Though it is a park-cum-playground, there is no vegetation worth the name. There is no watchman and the park is used as an urinal by several people.

The Oynx garbage bin is placed just in front of the gate making it difficult for the public to enter the playground. The playground was developed not too long ago (in 2003-04) out of constituency funds of Dr. V. Mythreyan, Member of Rajya Sabha with good intentions but it has become an eye-sore due to lack of proper maintenance.

I request the authorities to do the needful to maintain the park.

S. Thiruvengadam,

Padmanabha Nagar, Adyar

Speed-breakers or axle-breakers

This has reference to the letter on speedbreakers by a reader. Many of the speedbreakers in the Chennai streets are really axle-breakers.

There are standards (which have been violated unfortunately) — width of the strip, height of the hump, slopes on both the sides, alternating yellow and black coloured stripes for the full strip width so as to be identifiable from a distance even in dim light.

Through your columns, I appeal to the authorities concerned to enforce strict compliance of the standards.

S.P. Sankaranarayanan,

Mumbai

Infrequent bus services

The MTC buses on route 28 plying between Egmore and Tiruvottiyur always run packed. The situation is tailor made for pick-pockets.

Moreover, commuters travelling in these buses cannot get down easily when they reach their destinations. I request the authorities to increase the frequencies of the buses on the route.

N.B.S. Manian,

Manavalanagar

Streetlights

restored promptly

In response to my letter published in this column on (Feb. 13), Chennai Corporation restored the streetlights at the junction of Seventh Cross Street and Eleventh Cross Street in Sastri Nagar.

The quick response by the authorities in this regard shows that the Readers Mail Column is taken seriously by the authorities. I wish to thank Chennai Corporation in this regard.

P.V. Srinivasan,

Sastri Nagar

Ever rising

road traffic

The road traffic in the city is on the rise day after day leading to chaos. It is time to stop production of automobiles for the next decade.

If the road traffic becomes unmanageable, all the roads may have to be converted to one-way traffic. In fact, rickshaws can be made to ply in the city and they are eco-friendly, besides being cheap.

K. Pradeep,

Mogappair

English signboards needed

The Tamil Nadu Government runs many long distance buses from our state to various other states viz. A.P., Kerala and Karnataka and also to various districts within the State from Chennai. But the name boards (destination) are only in Tamil in most of the buses. While the MTC buses plying in the city have English name boards along with Tamil name boards, these long distance buses don't have English boards. Since thousands of people from various neighbouring states visit Chennai as tourists, it will be helpful for them to identify and board the buses if the names of destinations were also written in English.

D. Natarajan

Chennai-61

CMWSSB reply on sewage overflow

The Public Relations Manager CMWSSB replies:

With reference to the item in this column, we wish to inform that the problem of sewage overflow at Konnur High Road has been addressed; there is no sewage over flow in the area.

West Mambalam

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