The inordinate delay in laying underground water pipelines on Grand Southern Trunk Road near Government Hospital (GH), Tambaram Taluk, is hindering the free flow of vehicular traffic, causing inconvenience to road-users.
“Though started a month ago, the work has not been completed. Due to this, the wide arterial stretch gets narrow near the GH and during rush hour, traffic comes to a grinding halt.
It takes around 10 minutes to travel from GH to Ponds Flyover. Moreover, certain sections of the arterial stretch, at some points, where the pipes have been laid, have not been re-laid,” says S. Venkat, a resident of East Tambaram.
Without noticing the work site, vehicle-users, including MTC bus and car drivers, come at a high speed and swerve suddenly either to the left or right, forcing other vehicle-users to slam on the brakes.
At night, the highway experiences a huge volume of traffic.
On an average, more than 10,000 heavy vehicles use this highway to reach Chennai every night. On the western side of GST Road, starting from a row of commercial establishments, till the Ponds Flyover, massive pipes have been lying idle for several weeks. The pipelines are kept at parking lots belonging to two restaurants near the flyover. As a result, customers park their vehicles on the road, forcing pedestrians to squeeze through the vehicles or walk in the middle of the road.
“Thought I leave my house much early to reach my office on Rajiv Gandhi Salai, I am unable to make it on time, as I get trapped in the traffic for more than 10 minutes near the Ponds Flyover. No traffic police personnel are deployed to regulate the traffic, even during rush hour,” says S. Vidhya, an IT professional.
“The pending works should be completed before the onset of the northeast monsoon, in order to avoid additional rain-related problems,” she points out.
