The almost daily tide of protest marches and demonstrations have apparently taken a toll on citizens.
Fuel bills
Two-wheeler riders and motorists complain of a steep hike in their fuel bills.
The protests often force them to take unnecessary detours, endure slow moving traffic, or get stuck in traffic jams for considerable time.
Moreover, large swathes of the city’s centre, chiefly Palayam and Statue, remain inaccessible to citizens for the better part of the day.
Many residents have shifted their bank accounts from branches in these localities to those in relatively less crowded neighbourhoods of the city.
Hotels
Hoteliers in Statue say that whenever there are protests, there is a sudden dip in sales.
“Often we have surplus food with no customers”, one says. Business has moved away from here to more accessible areas, says the manager of a vehicle showroom in the locality.
Traffic enforcers point out that even a small procession on the congested Mahatma Gandhi Road causes traffic to move at a snail’s pace on the Kesavadasapuram-East Fort stretch, primarily.
Increasing traffic
The traffic volume in the capital city is increasing at an almost exponential rate.
The traffic volume already exceeds the available road space by at least 250 per cent.
The police say they are hard-pressed to restrict parking near schools, markets, shopping localities, cinemas and marriage halls.
Only an effective mass rapid transport system clubbed with multi-tier paid parking bays and pedestrian under-passes and over-bridges will help ease the congestion in the city.
