While the traffic police is yet to find a way out of the conundrum around the MGR Statue traffic island ever since the opening of the Anna Nagar Link Road a few years ago, the Parangiri Velupillai Park roundabout in front the District Court, a few metres away, also remains a major bottleneck essentially due to unchecked parking of vehicles on the roadsides.
With the opening of the link road and diversion of mofussil buses through it, the volume of traffic passing through the Parangiri Vellupillai Park has doubled.
Some years back, the traffic police enforced a diversion for vehicles coming from MGR statue to go around the Parangiri Vellupillai Park instead of heading straight to Bharathidasan Salai or turn right towards Reynolds Road. This was essentially intended to check frequent traffic pile-ups when drivers of town buses tended to halt the buses right in the middle of the road at the four-road junction in front of the park. A proposal mooted by the Corporation in 2016 to shift the district court bus stop and locate it further up the road near Taluk Office, to avoid the need for vehicles to go around the Parangiri Vellupillai Park, never materialised.
Although the diversion served the purpose to a certain extent, unchecked parking of vehicles along Heber Road and poor road discipline by motorists halting in front of the automatic signal at the junction has made the roundabout a major traffic bottleneck in recent years.
Scores of vehicles could be seen parked right through the day in front of the commercial complexes, banks, and teashops on the opposite side of the District Court Complex. Motorists taking a left towards the Bharathidasan Road hardly get adequate space for manoeuvring between vehicles parked on the roadside and the vehicles queuing up in front of the signal.
“The situation is pathetic, especially during peak hours. Neither the police nor the Corporation has bothered to address the issue,” rued Parameswaran, a commuter who was caught in a traffic snarl at the junction.
Motorists, especially litigants and lawyers, too face problems while entering the District Court entrance from the Bharathidasan Road.
“Despite the apparent chaotic conditions, there has hardly been any intervention by the traffic police,” said Murugesan, a bus driver. Though police say cops are posted near the traffic signal, they hardly intervene to ease the traffic snarls or remove the vehicles parked on the roadsides.
