Though skies remained clear, it was total mess on roads leading to schools on day one of the new academic year.
As a section of autorickshaws and cars refused to take school trips citing unfavourable rules imposed on them by Traffic Department, parents had to make own arrangements to take children to school.
Constables posted near schools found it difficult to control the rush of vehicles or implement traffic rules in a strict manner.
Schools have been given time to do necessary alterations in school vehicles to comply with the 24 norms imposed by the Traffic Department to ensure safety of the children.
Many schools prevented the entry of vehicles onto the campus resulting in a chaos in front of the institutions. Parents found it difficult to find a place to park vehicles or return after dropping the child.
Avanashi Road, Tiruchi Road, Puliakulam Road, Sai Baba Colony, Thadagam Road, and R.S. Puram, as usual, bore the brunt of traffic snarls.
R. Visalakshi, president of Tamil Nadu Private Schools Association said that attendance in many schools in the district was low because of problems occurred in transporting children to schools.
Though on the first day of school reopening, many parents accompanied their children, it was not possible for them to continue with it as most of them were employed, said Ms. Visalakshi. Hence a solution should be found to the problem at the transportation front immediately, she added.
Some of the schools operated extra trips, as all the vehicles were not given fitness certificate by the Transport Department.