The first seasonal rain, though welcome after an extended summer, has put motorists to hardship in some suburbs of the city where the four-lane projects are underway.
The worst-hit are residents of colonies along Tiruchi-Thanjavur Road and Tiruchi Chennai-Bypass Road where the four-lane work is under way in full swing.
With the highway being laid in bits and pieces, traffic has been diverted along the service lanes in many stretches.
But the service lanes have developed huge potholes. Residents in Ariyamangalam, Kattur, Tiruverambur, Senthaneerpuram, Golden Rock and other colonies face the ordeal on a day-to-day basis.Roads have turned bad at the Ariyamangalam Palpannai traffic intersection and the TVS Tollgate intersection where flyovers are under construction.
Tyres of heavy duty trucks often get stuck in these potholes, resulting in serpentine queues of vehicles along the Tiruchi-Chennai Bypass Road.
With just a couple of policemen at the Ariyamangalam traffic intersection, it is a free-for-all as motorists vie with each other to get past the bottlenecks.
It often takes about an hour to cross over the Ariyamangalam-Senthaneerpuram stretch that is just about one km, motorists complain.
Moderate showers
Meanwhile, several parts of the district continued to receive moderate showers for the third consecutive day on Saturday. The city received some sharp showers in the afternoon for about an hour. Golden Rock and Tiruchi Junction recorded a maximum of 14 mm of rainfall during the 24 hour period ending at 8.30 a.m. on Saturday. The chief amount of rainfall, recorded in other parts of the district were (in mm): Ponnaniyar Dam 13, Manapparai 12.20, Koppampatti 11, Marungapuri 8.20, Musiri and Tiruchi Town 8.
