Close on the heels of announcing new traffic regulations for buses operating out of Central Bus Stand, the City police on Saturday announced that additional police personnel will be deployed around the terminus every Sunday, when traffic congestion is worse, to regulate traffic flow.
A couple of days back, the police announced new regulations for buses going on different routes from Sunday. The police notified specific exit and entry routes and banned parking of private buses on VOC Road. Commissioner of Police A. Arun said that under two Assistant Commissioners of police, four Inspectors, seven Sub-Inspectors and nearly 50 constables drawn from traffic, crime and law and order units of the city police would be on duty around the bus stand. Besides regulating traffic, they would also focus on crime prevention and law and order.
The police personnel would remain till late in the night, Deputy Commissioner of Police S. Prabakaran told The Hindu.
The 4.5-acre bus stand which was expanded with additional space and bus bays after the Corporation acquired about 1.6 hectares of adjoining railway land in 2008 continues to witness heavy traffic congestion, especially on weekends and festival periods.
Heavy congestion along town bus terminus, which functions outside the bus stand, and on Rockins Road and VOC Road often brings traffic to a standstill and causes inconvenience to road users.
Although the traffic police have put up temporary steel barricades to regulate traffic flow from Rockins Road to the bus stand, chaos prevails as the space is too narrow for heavy vehicles to negotiate and due to rampant violations by motorists who try to squeeze through the narrow gaps between the barricades. The situation turns worse during peak hours and late evenings when a large number of mofussil buses come to the bus stand.
Near Gandhi Market
The initiative, coming after long years of neglect of traffic situation in the city, has been welcomed by the residents. It is welcome that the police have started doing something to regulate traffic in some parts of the city. They could also focus on a few other perennial problems such as regulating parking on roadsides and traffic flow around Gandhi Market,” said M. Sekaran, president, Federation of Consumer and Service Organisations and member of District Traffic Advisory Council.
One-way traffic system should be enforced around Gandhi Market and entry and parking of goods lorries around the market restricted during daytime, he said.
