Tamil Nadu - Chennai   

Rail, road traffic pile-up at crossing

K. Manikandan

Commuters stuck during the morning rush hour

SUBURBAN CHAOS: Vehicles and people clog the approach to the railway level crossing at Dargah Road, Pallavaram on Thursday. — PHOTO: K. Manikandan

TAMBARAM : Hundreds of commuters on their way to colleges and offices were stranded in electric trains for more than a half hour and others were trapped on the road following a massive traffic pile-up at the level crossing on Dargah Road near Pallavaram railway station on Thursday morning.

Authorities said the pile up was a result of an auto-rickshaw and a college bus getting trapped at the level crossing (LC No. 25) at 8.45 a.m. Soon, vehicles from Old Pallavaram area and proceeding towards Grand Southern Trunk Road and also those in the opposite direction were stuck at the level crossing. It was 9.20 a.m. by the time the two vehicles were removed from the crossing. More than half-a-dozen electric trains on both directions towards Tambaram and Chennai Beach could move only after the gates were brought down, causing a delay of more than 30 minutes. Ten minutes later, the gates were brought down, to be opened only at 10.05 a.m. This resulted in a massive pile-up of vehicles on either sides of the level crossing on Dargah Road, that connects Old Pallavaram, Keelkattalai and nearby places with GST Road.

Encroachments on this already narrow road add to the problems, officials said. According to a census conducted in 2002, the level crossing witnessed a traffic volume of 20.67 lakh Train Vehicle Units a day, indicating the huge volume of rail and road traffic here and the urgency for replacing the level crossing with a bridge or a subway.

It was announced in February this year that the level crossing would be permanently closed to make way for a subway to be built by the State Highways Department and Southern Railway at a cost of Rs. 4 crore, with the latter's share around Rs. 1.5 crore. The problems can be solved only after the level crossing was replaced, residents said.

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