The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Trailers and tankers leave a trail of chaos

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Aug 23, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Trailers and tankers leave a trail of chaos

Swahilya

Major areas in Royapuram stink with garbage, choke with encroachments

— Photo: V. Ganesan

roadblocks: Trailers parked along the sides of the road at East and North Mada Church Roads in Royapuram impeding free movement of pedestrians and cyclists.

CHENNAI: The predominant areas of Royapuram around the Madras Harbour and the East and North Mada Church Roads present a miserable picture, filled with garbage and encroached upon by a line of trailers that are parked there.

Residents have for over two decades been complaining of the problem of tippers and trailers being parked and serviced on the roads. The problem has increased drastically in recent years, coupled with three-fourths of the roads being occupied by the vehicles and all the remaining space on the road is filled with uncleared garbage on which flies and mosquitoes are feasting.

Vijayakumar, a resident of the area, who had brought his daughter, studying in St. Peter’s School, to a doctor in a mobile camp, said, “Sanitation and hygiene are the main problems and suffering has become the order of the day here.”

E. Earnest Paul, former vice-president of the Royapuram Residents Welfare Association, said that another major problem was traffic congestion. While the lanes and bylanes and even the main roads of Royapuram are crowded with vehicles including cycles, autorickshaws, bullockcarts, lorries, buses, trailers and containers and pedestrians sharing the narrow road space, encroachments by pavement vendors on Maniyakkara Chathram Road and other places have shrunk the space further.

On any working day, there will be a long line of trailers creating a traffic jam on Suryanarayana Road up to the new Royapuram Bridge going towards the harbour and the trailers that come out of the port also have to pass through the East Kalmandapam Road into Sheikh Maistry Street on to the main road.

Senior traffic police officers agreed that the problems of Royapuram were indeed genuine and involve multiple departments including the Port Trust and the Highways. With both the ‘In’ and ‘Out’ gates of the Harbour situated in Royapuram Fishing Harbour and at the end of the East Kalmandapam Road, the problem can be solved only if the proposal of an exclusive road for 1.8 km along the coastline near the fishing harbour is through.

The problem has persisted for several years now and the Police Department has also sent repeated letters to the Port Trust.

The parking of containers and trailers for repair works on East and West Mada Church Roads in Royapuram is a problem of “habit.”

Even if police clear the trailers, they come back within three hours, an official said.

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