Encroachments take over road near Perambur station

Vehicles, shops have reduced space for motorists

CHENNAI: 05/02/2013: As the Perambur High Road leads to Perambur Railway Station is narrow, traffic chaos persists day by day in Chennai, Tamil Nadu on Tuesday. Photo: V. Ganesan.

Encroachments between the bus terminus and the railway station — a distance of around 100 metres — on the Railway Border Road in Perambur are taking a toll on traffic with motorists and Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) buses finding it difficult to negotiate the narrow space.

Motorists using the stretch have to spend at least twenty minutes at a manned traffic point in front of the railway station on the road to reach either Vyasarpadi or Perambur Barracks Road. This is mainly due to parking of more than a dozen autorickshaws, including share autos, on both sides of the stretch. “For the few past years, the autorickshaws are parked permanently at the entrance of the railway station. These, along with buses, occupy almost the whole road leading to congestion,” said R Suriyakumar, a motorist in Perambur.

Autorickshaw drivers say that they would lose business if they were asked to park away from the railway station as the bus terminus is located hardly a hundred metres away.

“The small stretch opposite the railway station is a one-way. Autorickshaws can park there because they get more space and the traffic chaos too will come down. We tried to ask the autorickshaw drivers to park their vehicles there but they still park in front of the railway station,” said a traffic police officer, who did not want to be named.

Further, illegal extension of the shops along the stretch between these two points has narrowed the space available on the road by more than half. As a result, traffic moves at snail’s pace with the lone traffic policemen who is posted at the main entrance of the railway station in Perambur finding it a herculean task to regulate vehicular movement. Pedestrians also find it difficult to use the stretch.

The stretch is a vital link for thousands of motorists in Perambur on their way to areas such as Vyasarpadi, Pullinthope, MKB Nagar, Basin Bridge, Washermenpet and Tondiarpet.

The bitumen-topped stretch is less congested and connects the railway stations at Perambur and Vyasarpadi.