To reduce congestion during Pongal festival the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has made arrangements at Paranur and Athur toll plazas in Chengalpattu on the Chennai – Tiruchi National Highway. Sources explained that the toll operator has deployed additional manpower to help segregate traffic into their respective lanes, got more scanners and hand-held POS machines. A meeting was convened by the district administration recently to discuss the issue. However, choked roads were witnessed on Saturday, as the vehicular movement began away from the city for the Pongal holidays.
In its bid to ease traffic movement, the agency has also opened the rail over bridge at Paranur, which was under construction. “Due to the rains, the work had to be put on hold. However, we worked overnight to lay the top coat, installed crash barriers and opened it for traffic on Friday night,” explained another official.
Despite the efforts, the traffic however was heavy on all roads leading out of Chennai with lakhs of people headed to their hometowns. “The traffic at the Paranur plaza is heavy. We usually see around 40,000 vehicles a day during weekends. On Friday, this number was definitely higher and on Saturday it was more than the previous day’s figures. The number of cars and buses crossing is quite high. We don’t keep count of two-wheelers since they don’t pay toll,” said a source at the toll plaza.
Sources in the Traffic police said that vehicles were moving at a snail’s pace on the road and there were snarls as far as Ulundurpet. On the Chennai-Tada National Highway to Nellore, motorists said that traffic was quite slow. “I am driving to my hometown and it will take me longer than usual now. But I will reach by tonight,” said C. Krishna, who was driving to Nellore.
Motorists said that every Pongal and Deepavali, the national highways witnessed a major exodus of people travelling to their native places. “This is due to the lack of development of business centres in all major cities. Chennai remains the IT hub and the city’s sprawl is only spreading. This is leading to more people moving to the city. At least now, the government and IT companies must look at Tier I and II cities,” explained a traffic planner.
