Tamil Nadu   

Velachery Main Road, a travellers’ nightmare

TAMBARAM: The death of five men in less than 24 hours at four different places on Velachery Main Road has only exposed the hazards of travelling on the arterial road.

Velachery Main Road, also known as Marmalong - Irumbuliyur Road, is State Highway No. 48 and is 21-km-long, connecting Tambaram and Saidapet via Velachery.

For as long as residents of Tambaram and other suburban pockets can remember, this arterial road was a “single road” before improvement and widening works were taken up on a large scale in the late 1990s. Partly raised medians separating the carriageway into two halves were also part of the works.

However, the road was re-laid several times, bringing down the height of the medians to just a few cms. And on Saturday, the car involved in the accident on Gowrivakkam went over the medians and fell on the other side of the road before colliding head-on with an oncoming vehicle.

Saturday’s accidents at Mahalakshmi Nagar, Rajakilpakkam and Gowrivakkam, all within a distance of less than two km saw residents spilling onto the road, though not in protest, but to mourn the lives lost. Traffic police personnel were witness to some harsh reactions from the residents.

“This spot has become a death trap. Will the authorities wait for more lives to be lost in accidents before they take some concrete steps,” asked R. Govindan, a resident of Gowrivakkam since 1999.

Pointing out to a row of shops that had eaten into road space, he said it only reflected the failure of the State Highways and other departments concerned in preventing encroachments and the attitude of the State government to road safety and accident prevention.

Elected representatives came to each of the three accident spots, all coming within Sembakkam Town Panchayat.

The decision of this urban local body and Medavakkam village panchayat to spend huge sums on installing high-mast lamps and streetlights along this road was taken with the intention of preventing road accidents. But when the accidents take place in daytime, what could one do, asked a local councillor of Sembakkam, preferring not to be named.

Citizens’ groups in East Tambaram and adjoining areas have been demanding the constitution of a committee comprising officials of different government departments and civic groups to explore the possibilities of bringing down the accident rate.

While the traffic police find it convenient to blame it on road indiscipline, residents attribute the growing accident rate to lack of enforcement.

Installation of signals at intersections, construction of raised medians, adequate road safety symbols along this stretch, increasing traffic police strength and considering public opinion on road safety would go a long way in effectively bringing down the accident rate, the residents said.

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