
CHENNAI: In anticipation of possible traffic congestion, with a total of 12 lakh commuters who travelled from Chennai to various parts of TN during the Pongal festival expected to return in the next few days, the transport department has urged commuters to begin their return journey from Friday so that the rush is staggered across three days. A high number of return bookings for government buses have been scheduled particularly on Sunday.
According to an official note, 8.73 lakh commuters travelled out from the city in government buses, while private omni buses carried about 3.75 lakh from January 10 to 13. With many planning to commence their journeys on Sunday, heavy congestion is expected from Monday morning on key routes, including the Chengalpattu-Tambaram stretch of GST Road, Uthandi-Thiruvanmiyur section of ECR, Thiruporur-Thiruvanmiyur stretch of OMR, Poonamallee-Maduravoyal section of the Bengaluru NH, Thirunindravur-Padi section of Chennai-Tirupati Highway, and Nallur-Madhavaram stretch of the Kolkata NH.
Similar to the handling of the post-Deepavali rush, the toll gates at Paranur and Athur on the Tambaram-Tindivanam NH will open for unrestricted vehicular movement. National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) officials said that seven or eight lanes of the total 10 may be reversed to accommodate traffic to Chennai, based on the situation’s severity.
R Mohan, managing director of the State Express Transport Corporation (SETC), said a total of 15,866 buses, including 7,498 special buses, operated from Chennai to various parts of the state and beyond, ferrying 8.73 lakh commuters to their hometowns for Pongal from January 10 to 13.
However, for the return journey, 28,022 commuters reserved their tickets for January 17, 29,056 commuters for January 18, and 42,917 for January 19. Hence, a total of 6,926 buses, including special services, are planned to operate from January 15 to 19.
The Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) announced it would operate additional services to facilitate commute from KCBT to various parts of the city on January 19 and 20. As many as 150 additional services will operate on Sunday and 500 on Monday.
“In addition to the 482 daily buses from KCBT, 982 buses will be operated on Monday. Transport staff will be deployed at Tambaram, KCBT, Poonamallee, CMBT, MMBT, Redhills, Egmore among other key routes to regulate congestion,” MTC stated. The railways announced that a special train will operate from Mandapam to Chennai Egmore on Sunday. It will depart Mandapam at 10 pm and reach Egmore at 11.30 am on Monday.