CHENNAI: It’s a routine now. During the morning and evening rush hours, traffic comes to a standstill at Vijayanagar junction in Velachery. Especially, crossing the stretch of Velachery-Tambaram Road close to the Velachery MRTS is a painful experience for commuters. To pass the Vijayanagar junction from Kaiveli point, which is just about half a kilometre, it takes 15 minutes at the very least. The plight of pedestrians is the worst as there is too little space for them to move around.S Ramachandran, a senior citizen and a long time resident of Velachery, says that the entire neighbourhood near Vijayanagar junction has been hit by the burgeoning traffic problem.“To avoid the traffic jam near Vijayanagar, a growing number of people pass through the residential by-lanes to reach the bypass road on the other side. Now, even the interiors have become congested with vehicles.” Any solution in sight for the traffic woes? V Rama Rao and V Subramanian of the Traffic and Transportation Forum, a voluntary organisation of citizens to help resolve traffic issues, say that a number of measures would go a long way in easing the congestion.The OSR lands abutting the Vijayanagar intersection should be used to widen the congested point. The EB and police department should remove the nonfunctional power poles and traffic light respectively at this location.“Hawkers are occupying a sizable portion of usable area in the junction. They must be at least 100 metres away from the intersection,” Rama Rao says. The widening of the road from Vijayanagar junction to Velachery MRTS has not been completed fully. “This should be completed as quickly as possible.” EB poles that are still on the middle of the road must be removed. The highways department should relocate the storm water drains up to the Sutherland Company point. “Employees and visitors to some ITES companies park numerous vehicles right on the pedestrian pathways and even on the roads. This practice must be halted immediately,” V Subramanian pointed out.Also, MTC bus drivers should be sensitised to avoid parking the buses on the road. “Specifically, they must be asked to park only within the parking bay area.” Several residents, besides the traffic forum functionaries, also suggested shifting the bus terminus to the Velachery Bypass Road to help ease congestion at Vijayanagar intersection.However, many have a different take on the whole issue. Says Kannappan K, a resident of Dandeeswarar Nagar and a public sector enterprise employee: “Road widening or building bridges is not going to solve the problem. At the most, such steps would only give very marginal benefits.As in Europe, encourage public transportation and impose prohibitive cost on using cars.” Sharing his experience, he said that cars occupy a minimum of 65 per cent road space. “Cars eat away huge space. Cut them down, come up with schemes like the BRTS everywhere. Link it up with MRTS, suburban, Metro and the now proposed Mono Rail facilities.You will see the change.”
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