Monday afternoon was chaotic for motorists with traffic coming to a standstill at many junctions on arterial roads. Though traffic regulations were announced for the swearing-in ceremony of Chief Minister Jayalalithaa and her Cabinet, at the University of Madras, hundreds of people gathered on Kamaraj Salai blocking traffic.
Party workers and public came on the road when the convoy reached Kamaraj Salai around noon to catch a glimpse of Ms. Jayalalithaa. The swearing-in ceremony was behind schedule by about 20 minutes as the convoys of Ms. Jayalalithaa and Governor Surjit Singh Barnala were delayed due to the crowd on the road.
This had a cascading effect with traffic heading towards Light House coming to a halt. Many motorists were caught between the sea of supporters and stranded for more than 30 minutes. “With great difficulty I parked my car on the road near Anna Square and waited on the pavement till the situation improved,” said Sampath Kumar, a banker.
A little later traffic police personnel stopped vehicles from War Memorial and Light House in an attempt to decongest the road. “By 1 p.m. we started permitting only two-wheelers on the road,” said a traffic inspector on duty near Labour statue.
Hundreds gathered around the giant TV screens placed opposite Ezhilagam and near the Labour statue on which the swearing-in ceremony was screened. Sultan A., travelling with his nephew on a motorcycle from Madipakkam to Simpsons, said: “I started from home at 11.30 a.m. It generally takes me only 45 minutes on road, but in Teynampet stretch the vehicles hardly moved.”
While traffic on Anna Salai was literally crawling from 11.30 a.m. to 2.30 p.m., its effect was felt on many other stretches. Commotion prevailed at the junction of Adithanar statue in Egmore, Anna University stretch and TTK Road. Signals at many traffic junctions were not functioning. Some motorists said that there was comparatively less traffic police to oversee vehicular movement at the busy junctions.
The traffic returned to normality only by 3 p.m.
