Traffic slowed down in several areas of the city as All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) general secretary Jayalalithaa took over as Chief Minister on Monday morning.
Portions of several roads, including Kamaraj Salai, Swami Sivananda Salai, and Dr. Radhakrishnan Salai, were closed for traffic.
Aminjikarai resident E. Ravi said it took him an hour and a half to cover the distance from Taj Coromandel to Gemini flyover.
“I was on a two-wheeler and though I rode on the footpath for some distance, I reached the junction at 1 p.m. Barricades had been placed on Dr. Radhakrishnan Salai and motorists were so irritated that a few men removed a barricade and others followed suit,” he said. Motorcyclists stuck on various roads complained of the heat radiating from cars whose engines kept running. People waiting to have a glimpse of the Chief Minister on Marina Beach had to cope with the searing heat.
“Since there are no trees offering shade, we decided to walk to our vehicles rather than wait on the side. But the heat was very intense in the spaces between cars,” complained a woman who was walking with a child in her arms.
S. Devanathan, a commuter, said he had been stuck on Kamaraj Salai for over an hour. “The police were diverting traffic into the bylanes nearby and we had to navigate our way through after that. There was no proper planning to manage traffic given that an event of such a large scale was taking place,” he said.
Policemen in charge of law and order were seen executing the traffic diversion work. The traffic jam on Kamaraj Salai had largely been caused by vehicles being parked along the service lanes and on the side of the roads. With traffic coming to a standstill there, a person in need of urgent medical help, was stuck in an autorickshaw and was seen trying to walk, picking his way through the traffic.
Commuters who were coming from Adyar and Kotturpuram were stuck on Adyar Bridge and also faced a traffic snarl at Royapettah.
Traffic movement was considerably hit on Walajah Road too.
