The death of a man and his son duo in Tuesday’s accident near the Kamaraj Statue traffic island has brought to fore the chaotic traffic conditions that prevail around the Central Bus Stand in the city.
Enforcement of traffic diversions in view of the construction of a new bridge at the Aristo Junction has only compounded the problems around the bus stand, already affected by lack of space, poor traffic engineering, and regulation.
The Kamaraj Statue junction which leads to the bus stand has become a blind spot for motorists as vehicles converge here from all directions. Three small traffic islands are located at this junction.
Apart from town buses coming from the Rockins Road, mofussil buses from Madurai, Thanjavur, and Chennai enter the bus stand via this junction.
Of late, many town buses bound for Railway Junction take the V.O.C. Road and cross the Kamaraj Statue junction in the wrong direction. Given the tendency of the crew of many buses to over speed, motorists, especially two-wheelers, riders are often left stranded and exposed to grave danger.
The town bus halts, which were brought outside the Central Bus Stand a few years ago, actually begins near the Kamaraj Statue Junction and goes right up to the Periyar Statue Junction.
This single carriageway is perennially clogged as private and State Transport Corporation buses line up bumper-to-bumper. In a rather crude attempt to regulate traffic, the police have placed temporary steel barricades to regulate the town buses at the entry point. With a slew of hotels located along the road, vehicles are perennially parked along the road side, leaving very little space for pedestrians, and motorists. Omni buses parked along the V.O.C. Road and to the rear of the Co-Optex showroom add to the woes of motorists. Share autorickshaws pick up and drop passengers close by.
Expressing concern over the frequent accidents at the junction, civic activists had been pressing for better traffic management at the junction.
“The issue has been repeatedly discussed at the District Road Safety Council meetings and we have been pleading with the corporation to create a new roundabout or redesign the traffic islands at the junction for better traffic regulation,” says M. Sekaran, president, Federation of Consumer and Service Organisations, and a member of the council.
N. Ramakrishnan, founder MGR Nalpani Mandram, said public safety should be paramount and traffic islands at the junction should be redesigned to ensure smooth traffic flow.
Sources in the corporation said a traffic roundabout had been planned at the junction but they had to now await the construction of the new bridge being built at the Aristo Hotel Junction.
The road leading towards the Aristo Junction from the Kamaraj Junction is to be closed for traffic shortly in view of the construction of the bridge, they said and added that a pedestrian footbridge is being planned at the junction.