Passengers who were hoping to check-in on time for their flights on Friday night had a bit of a shock as traffic on GST Road was stalled to make way for Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi to leave the city. Many people were in a state of panic by the time they reached the airport.
With the state police pulling out all stops to ensure that no untoward incident occurred, there were cops stationed all along the road from Kathiapara flyover to well past the airport. As Modi was travelling along the length of Anna Salai from Madras University to the airport via Guindy, traffic was “temporarily kept to a minimum”, according to a policeman.
Luckily for commuters in cars, with the number of distressed calls made to SpiceJet, Indigo and Air India, the airlines agreed to keep the check-in counters open for as close at 10 minutes prior to take-off.
Earlier in the day, the same thing happened to people travelling from Tambaram towards Guindy, as traffic stalled neared the airport entrance for over 30 minutes — from 3.20 pm to 3.50 pm.
“Nandanam signal was a mess and it took us one-and-a-half hours from Raj Bhavan to T Nagar. And even there, most roads were closed or traffic diverted.
“The situation reminded me of the 90s, when the CMs used to drive by,” said Ramakrishnan M, an accountant from T Nagar.
Traffic was slow and stagnant in and around R K Salai, Nungambakkam and Adyar between 5 and 7 pm, because of the tight security cover.