Two junctions joined at the hip: a parallelism featuring T. Nagar and OMR

Though born in different situations and of widely varied sizes and serving hugely different volumes of traffic, the Vani Mahal junction and the Sholinganallur junction reflect the same traffic re-engineering philosophy and are almost similar in their results

A view of the closed Sholinganallur primary intersection on March 1, 2024. | Photo Credit: PRINCE FREDERICK

Visualise the restructured Vani Mahal junction (under a flyover) in T. Nagar as if it had been dropped on a table. Place your index and thumb fingers on it and skew it horizontally, extending it really wide, and you get something approximating to the newly re-engineered Sholinganallur junction.

Just as the primary intersection was made null and void in T. Nagar, the Sholinganallur junction has now been entirely closed with barricades. In both cases, the primary intersection allows only for movement of pedestrians. Motorists move around the primnary intersection, not through them. Aorund the primary intersection, the movement of vehicular traffic traces complete U-turns (complete loop-arounds); and partial U-turns with an arrow indicating an entry into a road barrelling into the intersection.

At T. Nagar, the move to disable the primary intersection was elective, effected in “peace time”. The new traffic arrangement was not forced on it as a result of any infrastructural work trundling through the primary road (GN Chetty Road) or the secondary roads (Thirumalai Pillai Road and Dr. Nair Road). In contrast, the traffic new arrangement in Sholinganallur tantamounts to an emergency measure, as Metro Rail work is visibly and hugely present on the primary Road (Old Mahabalipuram Road) and the secondary roads (Perumbakkam Main Road and ECR Link Road) and has inched close to the core of the junction.

Between them, the two intersections illustrate that best processes can be born healthy in the womb of two opposite situations — as much in turmoil as in tranquility.

Implemented in November 2023, under tranquil circulmstances, the new arrangement in T. Nagar has proved itself effective. Just a couple of weeks old, the new arrangement at Sholinganallur, born out of an exidency, is steadily receving plaudits from users.

Even after the Metro Rail line is completed in and around the junction and it soars over the roads meeting at the Sholinganallur intersection, there would be a case from preserving this arrangement with any alterations that might be required then.

The major changes

Trends U-turn: In front of the Trends showroom is a Janus-faced U-turn, one side for vehicles circiling back into  Rajiv Gandhi Salai (OMR) towards Navalur and the other for vehicles circling back towards the closed  Sholinanallur primary inrtersection. The latter would largely be used by motorists coming from  ECR Link Road.

Vivanta  U-turn In front of Taj Vivanta is a Janus-faced U-turn, one side for vehicles circling back into  Rajiv Gandhi Salai towards Karapakkam and the other for vehicles circling back towards the closed  Sholinganallur primary intersection. The latter would largely be used by motorists coming from  Perumbakkam Main Road.