As thousands of AIADMK cadre from mostly the city and suburbs thronged the two arterial roads Anna Salai and Kamaraj Salai, screaming horns and hardly-moving traffic were the norm in the city on Friday noon. RK Salai and adjoining roads leading to the Poes Garden also came to a stand still. The occasion was the public appearance of Ms. Jayalalithaa after 217 days.
As cadre lined the route her convoy would take, the vans and autos they had arrived in were parked all along Anna Salai, the beach road and R.K. Salai from Friday morning.
The crowds threw traffic out of gear from 11.30 a.m. onwards and oblivious motorists were stranded.
“From Friday morning, the city was decked up with AIADMK festoons, banners and cut-outs heralding the fame of its leader. But behind all this outer decking up of the city, thousands of motorists struggled due to the traffic congestion, ” complained K. Sridhar, a resident of Alwarpet.
Commuters on stretches like Anna Salai, Kotturpuram, and Kamarajar Salai added that MTC bus services were affected from noon. “I waited for nearly 30 minutes from 2 p.m. at the Simpson bus stop. Finally I took the MRTS train to reach Chennai Central Railway station,” said M. Kumudhavalli, who was visiting her husband admitted at the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital.
Hundreds of vehicles, including buses, cars and vans, were parked on the Kamarajar Salai and also on the adjacent service lane. “The traffic problems started at 11 a.m. I saw an ambulance struggling to make way on Kamarajar Salai. Vehicles carrying cadres were buzzing past at great speed. Policemen were having a tough time regulating the traffic,” said J. Kuppan, a resident of Santhome.
A traffic police constable on Anna Salai said that the heat was making the situation worse. “Many of the cadres were drunk and were dancing on the middle of the road an hour before Ms. Jayalalithaa’s convoy arrived. It was extremely difficult to handle them,” he added.
Nearly 6,000 police personnel including traffic police teams were on duty in city but they could bring the bottleneck to normalcy only around 4.30 p.m.
