The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Three-road junctions are a traffic nightmare

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jun 26, 2006

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Three-road junctions are a traffic nightmare

Sandhya Soman and Kannal Achuthan

Will be sorted out in due course: traffic police

Sandhya Soman

and Kannal Achuthan

CHENNAI: Motorists who try to obey road rules when navigating the junction of Royapettah High Road, Avvai Shanmugam Road and Masilamani Road will find themselves in a fix. Traffic in the area where three roads meet is more like a free-for-all, with vehicles moving in different directions at the same time.

It is only one of the city's many three-road junctions where there is an urgent need for traffic regulation. The junction does not have a signal nor are there any traffic police to control the haphazard flow of vehicles and help pedestrians cross the road without turning jaywalkers. Pedestrians have trouble crossing this junction if they want to reach any of these three schools: Cambridge Matriculation Higher Secondary School and DAV Gopalapuram, both on Avvai Shanmugam Salai, and Adarsh Vidyalaya Primary School on Royapettah High Road.

Says Mylapore resident M. Mahendar, who drops his children at Adarsh Vidyalaya everyday: "Vehicles stream in from Avvai Shanmugam Road. So, one has to be extremely careful when crossing the junction."

Valluvar Kottam junction

Another problem area in the centre of the city is the junction of Valluvar Kottam High Road, Corporation School Road and Tank Bund Road near Independence Day Park in Nungambakkam. Despite there being a signal post, vehicles from Tank Bund Road Park cut into Valluvar Kottam High Road without circling the `roundtana' as they are required to do.

"When vehicles coming from Valluvar Kottam Road and Rama Street want to enter Corporation School Road, they have to wait very long because there is a continuous stream of vehicles from Tank Bund Road," says K. Raghu Ram, a resident of Lake Area 1st Cross Street.

Pantheon Road, the seat of Greater Chennai Police Commissioner office, and the Rukmini Lakshmipathy Road junction are also subject to knotty traffic often. Road-users are happy that there is a police constable to regulate traffic, but are still concerned about speeding vehicles plying towards Egmore.

"Mindless of accident risk, two-wheeler drivers and cyclists often head in the direction they want without slowing down at this tricky junction," says road-user Dhanya R. She, like others, finds it difficult to get across to the other side without traffic police assistance. According to Joint Commissioner (Traffic) Sunil Kumar, the problem of three-road junctions is manifest all over the city.

"We will address this problem in due course. In fact, we will be getting more manpower within a couple of weeks and many of them will be deputed to regulate traffic at these zones," he said. A proposal to install more traffic signals was being studied. Road-users, meanwhile, should "strictly follow traffic rules ," Mr. Sunil Kumar said. "We are now booking cases when there is a stop-line violation, even during non-peak hours."

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