Lockdown still intense, but city’s roads choked

Lockdown still intense, but city’s roads choked

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:03.07.2020

With lockdown still in force, a few roads in the city and suburbs saw surge in the traffic on Thursday. Since most of the city roads are barricaded, those venturing out had to take a longer route to reach their destinations, leaving that particular stretch crowded.

More barricades have been erected in places where the number of COVID-19 cases were high. Some of the local residents of these places have now started using two wheelers instead of walking to buy essentials. Commercial areas like Purasaiwalkam, Sowcarpet, Flower Bazaar, Triplicane, T Nagar, Tambaram and Velachery witnessed heavy traffic and some autorickshaws were also seen commuting on these roads. Despite of several warnings from the authorities, many two-wheelers were seen plying with pillion riders without masks or helmets. Police sources said that not less than 1000 vehicles are seized everyday for flouting the norms.

Though some of the stretches are barricaded to stop vehicle movement, some of the motorists were seen trying to remove the brricades trying sneak in.

“Some of them study the routes where there are no barricades and also take advantage of the absence of police personnel and use bikes,” said a SI, who was posted at T Nagar.

“The motorists whose vehicles argue with the us whether it is possible to walk looking for grocery shops,” said the SI. “We have blocked all the main roads and keep only a particular road free, to discourage people from travelling unnecessarily. This will also ensure, they get caught during the police check,” said a senior police officer.

FLOUTING THE RULES: A busy Peters road in Royapettah