Commuting during weekends in the town has become an arduous task, thanks to the huge footfall of tourists and movement of people from within the region. Traffic mayhem which starts on Friday evening continues till late Sunday evening with every road leading to the Boulevard chock-a-block with vehicles.
A survey conducted by the traffic police in association with Sri Manakula Vinayagar Engineering College on a Friday and Saturday in March 2017 revealed that around 3 lakh vehicles enter and leave the town per day.
The survey conducted at five entry points to the town — Ajantha Signal, 45-feet road, Raja Theatre junction, Odiansalai and Sonanpalayam — revealed that around 2.6 lakh two-wheelers, 17,000 cars, 3,200 tempos, 13,000 autos, 3,500 load carriages, 2,200 buses and 1,500 vans enter and leave the Boulevard area. Of the 17,000 cars, more than 50% are from the neighbouring States, said a police official.
During weekends, roads are crammed as people park their cars and two-wheelers not just along the roads but in front of houses and commercial establishments in Boulevard. Parking of vehicles in a haphazard manner not only hampers free flow of vehicles but also causes inconvenience to residents staying nearby.
“It will take a minimum of 15 minutes to cross Anna Salai - 45 Feet Road cutting on Friday and Saturday evenings. The flow of vehicles, especially four-wheelers, is too heavy for our narrow roads to carry. As our territory is becoming one of the most favoured getaway destinations, the problem seems to be only growing if some innovative measures are not adopted. On weekends, if you notice 10 vehicles in a street in Boulevard, six to seven are those with registration numbers of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh,” Ravichandran, a resident of Bharathi Nagar, said.
Puducherry has a unique topography. But the chaotic and mind boggling traffic scenario seems to be the Achilles` heel of the territory, said T. S Venkatasubramanian, a retired government employee, who resides at Raman Nagar.
According to Kakoli Banerjee, Founder Member- People for Pondicherry’s Heritage, “Weekend traffic has become a nightmare for the city, especially for the residents of Rue Romain Rolland. Now that Rue Dumas has become a no stopping/no parking Street, the entire problem has shifted to the much narrower Romain Rolland Street, which just cannot have two lanes of traffic along with one lane of parked cars. As a result we residents have to park far away from our homes.”
Commuting during weekends in the town has become an arduous task due to huge footfall of tourists and movement of people from within the region.
B. Yeshwanth, a software engineer from Bengaluru, has been visiting Puducherry at least once in two months for the past two years. “There has been a progressive increase in traffic. On the weekends, it is impossible to find any parking in the white town area, and often, the small streets get clogged with a variety of vehicles, from pushcarts to lorries,” he says.
Traffic police personnel deployed for management in ad-hoc manner every weekend or on busy holidays will not solve this issue, only resulting in continually shifting the core problem from one location to another. Neither does it solve the issues of noise pollution from honking, air pollution from exhaust fumes, nor road safety issues such as purse and chain snatching, accidents, and the overall stress, instead of what should be a pleasant and relaxing outing for all the people, residents and tourists in the city, said Devangi Ramakrishnan, Manager, Strategic Projects, Pondicherry.
Sunaina Mandeen of People for Pondicherry Heritage said PondyCan and Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage had submitted a proposal containing measures to decongest Boulevard during weekends to the government in 2010.
It was proposed to use the land available on the northern end of the Botanical garden as a parking lot for tourists. “The idea was to provide proper parking facilities for all tourists coming by special buses, vans and cars. And they could then use a kind of ferry service of hop-on and hop-off buses that would ply from there to boulevards and canal road. The facility could be used by the locals too,” she said.
A senior police official who was part of the survey, told The Hindu that several suggestions were given to the government, including restriction of cars and vans into the town during weekends. Parking facility could be provided at the entry points to the town and from there tourists could use public transport system to reach Boulevard, the official said.
“Posting of traffic policemen will not serve the purpose. Diversion of vehicles will only add to the chaos. The carrying capacity of our roads is limited and widening of roads inside the town is not possible. Something drastic at the government-level should be done at the earliest before the traffic scenario gets out of control. The chaotic traffic scenario could have an adverse impact, even on tourist arrival,” the officer said.
