CHENNAI: Many missed their trains - a huge collateral damage - because of the much-cheered Pinkathon marathon in the city early on Sunday. Diversions to help the marathon caused severe traffic knots on EVR Road where the Chennai Central railway station is located.People travelling through the Marina Beach road to Parrys corner, George Town and thence to the Central railway station were diverted near the MGR memorial.
The Pinkathon is a women’s marathon organised in eight cities in India, including Chennai, to create awareness among woman about breast cancer treatment. It attracted more than 8,000 women.
“The traffic was diverted near the Labour statue, Periyar statue, Muthusamy Road and Parrys Corner,” said a police official.
While the diversion seemed easy for the police, the ground reality was different. A person from Besant Nagar who took an Ola cab to Central station to catch the Satabdi Express to Coimbatore at 7.15 am started over an hour in advance. Because of the unexpected traffic knots, it took her almost two hours to reach the station from the MGR memorial. By then she had missed the train and returned home by the same cab.
“Usually one lane is given for vehicles to move and the other for the marathon. But this time both the lanes were blocked by runners,” she said. Speaking to Express, a senior police official said they were merely following orders by letting the marathon runners on both lanes of the road.
An auto driver outside Central station said, “A family missed the train by five minutes though they started early,” and added that he dropped them back in Mylapore.
Not only passengers but also cab drivers and auto rickshaws struggled to enter the Central railway station to drop and pick up passengers. An auto driver Kumar said he had to travel all along Egmore to reach the Harbour which cost him fuel and time. Auto drivers near the venue were unable to do their regular weekend picks-up as they were halted because of the road block. “Vehicles in the front had no idea where to go, as some police were clueless,” said a photographer at the marathon. The traffic flow became near-normal only around 9 am.