New LED lamps are being installed on the concrete median between Tirumangalam junction and Chintamani roundtana along Second Avenue Main Road in Anna Nagar to ease traffic flow on the stretch.
This action by Zone — 8 (Anna Nagar) of Greater Chennai Corporation follows an article in The Hindu Downtown highlighting the plight of motorists and pedestrians using this poorly-illuminated stretch.
The one-km-long Second Avenue Main Road in Anna Nagar, which connects Tirumangalam junction with the Anna roundtana, is among key stretches where one-way traffic system was introduced in December 2011 to facilitate Metro Rail work in the neighbourhood. As much of the Metro Rail work, including creation of an underground railway station in the locality, is nearing completion, a two-way traffic system was reintroduced in some of these stretches, which include Second Avenue Main Road, Third Avenue Road, Fourth Avenue Main Road, 13th, 15th and 18th Main Roads, on 2 February this year.
The existing old sodium vapour lights were replaced with new LED lights along the stretches in Anna Nagar at a cost of ₹1.5 crore. At present, staff of the electrical wing of the Zone – 8 body are testing the lights, which are expected to ‘glow’ this week.
“As one-way routes in Anna Nagar have become two-way, we have taken up the installation of street lights on a war footing,” says a Corporation official.
The roads in Anna Nagar, where two-way traffic has been introduced, have been widened and re-laid with bitumen by Chennai Metro Rail, but they lack other basic facilities, including working traffic signals, reflectors, speed breakers with zebra markings, bus shelters and signboards.
As a result, more traffic policemen have been pressed into service to regulate traffic in the neighbourhood, especially during rush hour. The rest of the day, motorists have to regulate themselves while using the stretch. Worse still, taking advantage of the width of the newly-laid Second Avenue Main Road, motorists have turned this stretch into a parking lot for private vehicles.
Unlike many other stretches, which are essentially street lanes, Second Avenue Main Road connects several big neighbourhoods like Ayanavaram, Padi, Kolathur, Korattur, Tirumangalam, Nolambur, Mogappair, Ambattur and Annanoor with rest of the city via Poonamallee High (PH) Road at Anna Arch.
As per traffic police estimates, on an average, more than 8,000 motorists use the stretch (Second Avenue Main Road) every hour.
