Traffic chaos in the busy Overbridge-Thampanoor stretch is to aggravate from Monday with the road development and widening of the culvert works dragging on and more vehicles entering the road with the reopening of the educational institutions.
Confusion and traffic snarls prevail among the road users in the stretch though the 12-storey KSRTC bus terminal complex, star-shaped culvert and reconstruction of culvert from Ponnara Sreedhar Park to Pazhavangadi canal had been completed.
During the morning and evening peak hours and when the trains arrive at the central railway station, vehicles get piled up in the roads around the park and up to adjacent RMS and Aristo junctions.
Hapazard parking of private vehicles, autorickshaws and stoppage of the KSRTC and TNSRTC buses adds to the confusion. The stoppage of the buses to enter the terminal through the opening of the median near Hotel Chaithram also results in the traffic snarls.
Road users often have to risk their lives to cross the road as there are no foot overbridges and footpath.
The delay in commencing the long distance and mofusil services of the KSRTC from the bus terminal is cited to be main reason for the snarls.
Commuters have to run helter-skelter to catch the buses from the temporary bus stand created on both sides of the road. From Monday, the school and college students will also have to face the hardship.
“We were under the impression that the works will be over by May. It is a nightmare to move along the stretch and to cross the road,” says Sreekala. S, who arrives by train and takes a bus to Nedumangad.
An official of the TRDCL, the concessionaire of CRIP, said they have expedited the work to complete 10-metre reconstruction of the canal between the Indian Coffee House and KTDC’s Hotel Chaithram.
Work of seven metres of the culvert along the railway premises is also pending. “The medians had been created and the relaying of the six-lane carriageway will be taken up after that,” he said.
Signals will come up in the median opening near Hotel Chaithram to allow buses to enter the terminal. Signals will also have to be installed at RMS junction where roads from S. S. Kovil and Manjalikulam meet.
