CHENNAI: Despite the construction of Porur bridge, traffic woes continue in the area. Residents say reviving the Old Police Station traffic signal, which is located about 250 metre away from the bridge will help. A new signal came up near a major shopping complex after the Porur bridge was inaugurated. “Initially, residents of Ramakrishna Street, Sivavera Anjaneyar Kovil Street, Vanniyar Street, Chetty Street and areas adjacent to it would take a turn near the Old Traffic Station signal.
However, since the turnings are now barricaded, motorists are forced to take a roundabout of at least 1.5 km,” said Senthil Kumar, a local resident. He added that traffic near the next signal is always heavy due to the shopping complex. “To travel the extra 1.5 km, it sometimes takes about 45 minutes because of bottlenecks. Traffic gets blocked from the Porur flyover.
The bridge has brought little respite to the motorists,” said P Lakshmi, one of the residents. People said the situation gets worse when the other signal is also shut. “During weekends and ahead of festivals, when traffic is extremely high, even the Sakthi Nagar signal is shut. The motorists are then forced to travel one more kilometer and take a turn near Mugalivakkam,” said R Krishnan who works in Porur.
Also, since the traffic signal near the Old Police Station already exists and there would be no extra infrastructure costs, residents of the interior urge the authorities to restart it at the earliest. When contacted, the traffic police said they had to shut the traffic signal due to the recurring accidents and that they would look into the issue