Though the motorists in the city are rejoicing over the easy flow of vehicles at many area where traffic jams were common earlier, the Singanallur Junction has become a nightmare for them, especially during the peak hours.
The city police eliminated traffic signals and introduced U turns by cutting open the centre median. The U turn yielded the desired results and was a success, but unfortunately the only problem area is the Singanallur Junction where traffic woes faced by motorists has worsened.
Shanmugam, who commutes from Ramanathapuram to Irugur to visit his factory daily points out that “let the U turn system remain as it is, the least the city police could do is to deploy a constable right in front of the Singanallur police station to stagger the flow of vehicles on Tiruchi Road to Ondipudur and the flow of vehicles from Kamarajar Road to Tiruchi Road.” At present, motorists having waited at the signal endlessly display a sense of impatience and try to rush leading to accidents and wordy duels.
Similarly, the police should deploy another constable a little away from the signal where the U turn has been facilitated again to stagger the flow of vehicles taking U turn on Tiruchi Road to proceed to the city and again stagger the flow of vehicles coming from Ondipudur.
The other factors that contribute to the traffic chaos is the narrow road space at least for a km on either side of the signal, that is on the Tiruchi Road from the city to Ondipudur. As the road surface is in a pitiable condition, it should be re-laid and half the congestion would ease. Corporation sources acknowledged the issue and said that the work would be speeded up and will be completed soon.
The civic body has been laying pipeline on the left side of Tiruchi Road from the city to Ondipudur and that is the reason for the damaged road condition. The civic body should expedite the process of laying pipelines and re-lay the road surface. A flyover at Singanallur is a permanent solution to the issue but the Model Code of Conduct is holding back the process. Once the results are announced, the Highways Department would go in for re-tendering and the works would begin, official sources said.
