By Express News Service
Chennai: Normal life came to a standstill across Tamil Nadu on Wednesday after DMK president M Karunanidhi died on Tuesday evening.
The streets across Chennai and other parts of Tamil Nadu wore a deserted look as all the shops including street vendors, shopping malls, cinema theaters, hotels and grocery shops down their shutters. All the private companies including IT firms and other manufacturing industries also remain closed.
The roads within the city and state highways posed empty look as state transport corporations and private bus operators suspended the bus services completely. The bus services were stopped across Tamil Nadu since 8 pm on Tuesday. Goods lorries were also not operated.
The Koyambedu mofussil bus terminus and city bus terminus Broadway, T Nagar, Thiruvanmiyur and Ambattur remained empty.
The busy Poonamalle highway road, Mount road, GST road, Inner ring road, old Mahabalipuram road and East Coast road also remained calm and there were hardly a few two-wheelers seen on the road.
Commercial vehicles and other passenger transporting vehicles including Autos and call taxis also stayed off the roads. The petrol bunks also declared holiday from 6 am to 6 pm.
Distribution of both Aavin and private milk disrupted across the state. As the government declared holiday as a mark of respect to the Dravidian leader, schools and colleges remained closed.
The suburban local train services in Chennai Beach – Chengalpattu, Chennai Central – Arakkonam and Chennai – Gummidipundi operated with less numbers. However, these trains ran with only a handful of passengers.
There was no disruption in operation of Express trains across. Trains from Chennai Central and Chennai Egmore as per the schedule.
The state has 30,000 buses operated by both government and private operators, 4.5 lakhs lorries, eight lakh lightweight commercial vehicles and 1.99 crore two-wheelers.
