CHENNAI: The heavy rains on Sunday night left many city residents stranded on the GST Road, the main arterial road to enter the city from the southern side, as the rains uprooted a huge tree on the roadside.
Residents said the tree fell on a portion of the road at Vandalur at around 4 am resulting in the vehicles forming a long queue since early morning. Many city residents, who were returning home after the weekend, were left stranded on the road for nearly five hours before the police could engage workers and remove the tree from the road.
“Since the early morning, the vehicles passing by were moving slowly as they have to pass through the narrow space available on the stretch. As time passed by, the traffic came to a complete halt,” said a police officer engaged in the operation to remove the tree.
“I was returning after visiting Tiruchy in an SETC bus which was scheduled to reach Chennai by 7 am. But, the bus was halted near Vandalur for nearly three hours and it was 10.30 am when I reached Koyambedu,” said A Kumar, working in a media company.
Police said they removed the tree from the road by around 9.30 am after which the vehicles started moving freely. They said the delay was in finding workers to remove the tree in the early morning hours.