There are no street lights on the eastern and western side of the Grand Southern Trunk Road, right from the Airport flyover to the ‘Office of the Commissioner of Customs’, Meenambakkam. “Given the amount of vehicular traffic on the one kilometre stretch, alleged to be an accident-prone thoroughfare, lack of illumination at night can be very dangerous. Road users, especially motorists, are put to a lot of inconvenience while they navigate the stretch at night. Poor illumination might result in untoward incidents, thereby paralysing vehicular traffic,” says R. Krishnan, a motorist. “Every day, hundreds of vehicles pass through the stretch and at night, the highway experiences a huge volume of traffic with an average of over 10,000 heavy vehicles.
The State Highways Department should take steps to provide good illumination,” he adds. Motorists say the risk escalates during rains, when the headlights of oncoming vehicles can be even more disturbing.