Metro work near Porur slows traffic to crawl in peak hours

Metro work near Porur slows traffic to crawl in peak hours

Barricades in Middle Of The Road Create Bottleneck

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:30.07.2021

Traffic on the Mount-Poonamallee Road has slowed to a crawl as work has begun on the Poonamallee-Porur elevated corridor of the Chennai Metro’s phase-2.

Barricades have come up in the middle of the road at various points causing a traffic jam during the morning and evening peak hours. At least 1.75 lakh vehicles use the Mount-Poonamallee road every day.

Even vehicles going to places such as Maduravoyal, Red Hills, and Ambattur take this stretch. And with the road width being reduced for Metro piling work, traffic flow is hit. The worst stretch is between Porur and Iyyappanthangal.

“The Porur flyover brought some respite to the traffic woes and people were travelling hassle free for a couple of months. The traffic jam is worse between Porur junction and Kattupakkam during peak hours. Immediate measures have to be implemented to streamline the traffic,” said K Baskar, Tiruvallur resident-activist.

“Luckily many IT companies are still working from home and schools remain closed. The situation will not remain the same. The traffic congestion will turn worse when more vehicles start to flow in. Now I think the work will take at least five years to get completed,” says Palani, an employee of a private hospital in Iyyappanthangal.

“We will try to make it hassle-free for the public as much as possible. We are holding talks with the officials concerned. As of now there are no diversion plans as it is a wide road between Porur and Poonamallee. We will also get feedback from the public and bring in changes,” said a traffic police officer.

The Chennai Metro’s 118.9km phase 2 has three corridors and is expected to be completed by 2026. The three corridors are Poonamallee-Light House, Madhavaram-Sholinganallur, and Madhavaram-SIPCOT.