It is always rush hour on the OMR
Deepa H Ramakrishnan
CHENNAI, May 21, 2018 00:00 IST
Residents irritated with indefinite delays in infrastructure development; planners say piecemeal solutions won’t do
If your workplace is on Rajiv Gandhi Salai or if you live here and commute elsewhere for work, you can always blame the traffic for your delays.
In the 10 years since the road became a toll facility, traffic has leap frogged from a mere 30,000 vehicles a day to 1.35 lakh vehicles. With such numbers, it is always rush hour on OMR.
The road, the IT Corridor of the city, has close to 300 IT companies with a 4-lakh-strong workforce. IT industry sources say that no mercy is shown to IT employees on that road and that wading through traffic is a major headache on all working days. They also have made the real estate on OMR attractive. The 15-odd hotels on that road depend mostly on the IT companies for business.
Be it the staff of IT companies or umpteen hotels or educational institutions that have come up on either side of the six-lane road, using the traffic as an excuse is quite common, say bosses.
K. Purushothaman, senior director, Tamil Nadu and Kerala, at the National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom), says like ease of business, ease of working is a very important factor. “We need to work on those lines as clients or employees then won’t be talking about coming late using the traffic as an excuse. We are talking about Bangalore’s traffic snarls, the IT Expressway of Chennai should also not be added to that list,” he says.
Other numbers too are mind-boggling. There are under 30 institutions of higher education and at least 15 hotels with 3000-odd rooms along the road. However, the IT Corridor lacks even basic infrastructure development, say residents.
Long-time resident Sathish Galley says that he has seen the road from the time it was a mere single lane that connected several villages. “Now all that we have is a road that cannot expand any more and it has heavy traffic at all times. In case there is an emergency, there is no way to escape this traffic. There are very few connecting roads. There was a promise of an elevated corridor but will that become a reality?” he questions.
No relief
Thoraipakkam resident Kannan Bhakthavatsalam says that he has been a resident for 30 years now and that though the road became a six-lane facility, water and sewage connections are yet to be provided in many areas.
“Even recently, Chennai Metrowater announced that its tankers are available on call to collect sewage in the added areas. This is something very unfortunate. By now the agency should have provided connections to every house along the IT Corridor,” he says.
Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Associations of India’s Chennai president W.S. Habib says that it is unfortunate that a lot of construction has happened without basic civic and social infrastructure being put in place. “Despite builders paying infrastructure charges, not much has happened on that front. Planners must be more aggressive in getting things done,” he says.
Over the past decade, the government did come up with some options - be it BRTS, elevated road corridor or Metro Rail above that. But all of them are still in paper.
A piecemeal solution will not work out for Rajiv Gandhi Salai’s traffic and infrastructural problems, say planners. K.P. Subramanian, former professor of Urban Engineering, Anna University, says that what is needed is a long-term solution.
“Just an elevated corridor or a train will not get you out of the quagmire. Concentrating so many IT companies and colleges on one road was a mistake. What is required now is something drastic like a freeze on new constructions, reversal of 1.5 of Floor Space Index and perhaps a congestion tax too,” he suggests.
Deepa H Ramakrishnan
CHENNAI, May 21, 2018 00:00 IST
Residents irritated with indefinite delays in infrastructure development; planners say piecemeal solutions won’t do
If your workplace is on Rajiv Gandhi Salai or if you live here and commute elsewhere for work, you can always blame the traffic for your delays.
In the 10 years since the road became a toll facility, traffic has leap frogged from a mere 30,000 vehicles a day to 1.35 lakh vehicles. With such numbers, it is always rush hour on OMR.
The road, the IT Corridor of the city, has close to 300 IT companies with a 4-lakh-strong workforce. IT industry sources say that no mercy is shown to IT employees on that road and that wading through traffic is a major headache on all working days. They also have made the real estate on OMR attractive. The 15-odd hotels on that road depend mostly on the IT companies for business.
Be it the staff of IT companies or umpteen hotels or educational institutions that have come up on either side of the six-lane road, using the traffic as an excuse is quite common, say bosses.
K. Purushothaman, senior director, Tamil Nadu and Kerala, at the National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom), says like ease of business, ease of working is a very important factor. “We need to work on those lines as clients or employees then won’t be talking about coming late using the traffic as an excuse. We are talking about Bangalore’s traffic snarls, the IT Expressway of Chennai should also not be added to that list,” he says.
Other numbers too are mind-boggling. There are under 30 institutions of higher education and at least 15 hotels with 3000-odd rooms along the road. However, the IT Corridor lacks even basic infrastructure development, say residents.
Long-time resident Sathish Galley says that he has seen the road from the time it was a mere single lane that connected several villages. “Now all that we have is a road that cannot expand any more and it has heavy traffic at all times. In case there is an emergency, there is no way to escape this traffic. There are very few connecting roads. There was a promise of an elevated corridor but will that become a reality?” he questions.
No relief
Thoraipakkam resident Kannan Bhakthavatsalam says that he has been a resident for 30 years now and that though the road became a six-lane facility, water and sewage connections are yet to be provided in many areas.
“Even recently, Chennai Metrowater announced that its tankers are available on call to collect sewage in the added areas. This is something very unfortunate. By now the agency should have provided connections to every house along the IT Corridor,” he says.
Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Associations of India’s Chennai president W.S. Habib says that it is unfortunate that a lot of construction has happened without basic civic and social infrastructure being put in place. “Despite builders paying infrastructure charges, not much has happened on that front. Planners must be more aggressive in getting things done,” he says.
Over the past decade, the government did come up with some options - be it BRTS, elevated road corridor or Metro Rail above that. But all of them are still in paper.
A piecemeal solution will not work out for Rajiv Gandhi Salai’s traffic and infrastructural problems, say planners. K.P. Subramanian, former professor of Urban Engineering, Anna University, says that what is needed is a long-term solution.
“Just an elevated corridor or a train will not get you out of the quagmire. Concentrating so many IT companies and colleges on one road was a mistake. What is required now is something drastic like a freeze on new constructions, reversal of 1.5 of Floor Space Index and perhaps a congestion tax too,” he suggests.
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