The Hindu : It's not a smooth ride to `IT capital'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jul 14, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Tamil Nadu-Chennai

It's not a smooth ride to `IT capital'

By K. Manikandan

CHENNAI. JULY 13. The road to the city's IT capital — Taramani — is rough, and travel on the `IT Highway' is agonising.

While the stretch of the Old Mamallapuram Road beyond the city limits has been executed to a relatively better standard, the brief stretch from the Velachery-Taramani bypass and the junction at Madhya Kailash is hard to negotiate, say employees working at the TIDEL Park.

As several hundreds of IT professionals head to the TIDEL Park and software companies in the vicinity, there is a sudden increase in the flow of vehicles from Velachery, Perungudi, Tiruvanmiyur, Adyar and Guindy, in the morning peak hours.

The traffic flow was severely affected at least on two days last week. Problems occur essentially because of the narrow carriageway of the road between Madhya Kailash and the Velachery bypass junction. Further, the traffic umbrella adjacent to the TIDEL Park has been positioned awkwardly, leaving motorists confused. If four-wheeler riders try to negotiate the umbrella on the left side, they face the risk of skidding off the road. On the right side, there is the danger of their dashing against rashly-driven vehicles coming from the Tiruvanmiyur side.

While Metrowater completed the task of laying main sewer lines on the western side of the road, the dug-up trenches have been covered with gravel dust, with potholes at regular intervals, such as the one opposite the Film City.

Traffic snarls are caused when vehicles take a right turn to reach the various institutions in Taramani. Further, two-wheelers take a short cut after passing through a narrow bridge over the Buckingham Canal, adding to the confusion.

Though there is a wide service road running parallel to the main road, it hardly seems to serve any purpose.

Motorists complain that the narrow width of the road was the main reason for the frequent traffic snarls. Once the MRTS project commences, the flow of traffic would only increase, they say.

Traffic snarl at T.Nagar

Traffic on the one-kilometre stretch of Tirumalai Pillai Road between G.N.Chetty Road and Valluvar Kottam was thrown into disarray for over an hour on Saturday morning. A couple of sub-inspectors found it hard to tackle drivers of autorickshaws and water tankers at the Habibullah-Tirumalai Pillai Road junctions.

The problem started when vehicles tried to take a right turn to reach Habibullah Road from Tirumalai Pillai Road.

Shopowners said the road got choked with cars, MTC buses, autos and Metrowater lorries that come out from the adjacent filling station.

An executive working at an office complex located nearby said traffic snarls were a daily feature on the Tirumalai Pillai Road. He traced the cause to vehicles on the Tirumalai Pillai Road coming from Valluvar Kottam taking a right turn to the Habibullah Road. Traffic policemen were scarcely seen at the spot during rush hours, he said.

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