Chennai:As lakhs of people returned on Wednesday from their native places after four days of holidays, there was a heavy crowd of people crossing the road in front of the Kilambakkam bus terminus, interrupting traffic flow. The incessant rains added to the woes on the Chennai-Tiruchy road filled with thousands of vehicles, from government buses to cars and vans, leading to severe traffic congestion from Singaperumalkoil to Perungalathur.
About 4.5 lakh passengers had left the city for the holidays in government buses alone and most of them got down in front of the Kilambakkam bus terminus. They had to cross the road to go to the terminus to get MTC buses to reach their destinations in the city and hundreds of them were seen crossing the road from early morning. Since the skywalk has not been completed, the police had to allow the people to cross the road, frequently stopping the hundreds of cars and vans heading to the city from Wednesday night.
The passengers said most of them depend on MTC buses since the construction of the Kilambakkam railway station has been dragging on for three years. The Kilambakkam terminus saw thousands of people from the morning with their baggage and children running here and there to catch their
buses to the
city.
The Chennai-Tiruchy national highway witnessed bumper-to-bumper traffic from Tuesday night to Wednesday morning as lakhs of people returned. Besides the number of vehicles, the roads were wet and slippery due to the rains, slowing down their movement further. However, people said the vehicle flow at Padalam and Pukkathurai was smooth this time, unlike in previous years. The vehicles also crossed the tollgate without much delay due to the new system of online payment, but the traffic slowed down from Singaperumalkoil.
Heavy traffic congestion was witnessed at Urapakkam, Kilambakkam, Guduvanchery, Vandalur, Chromepet, Pallavaram, Perungalathur, Tambaram and Singaperumalkoil. Thousands of train passengers got down at Tambaram and waited at the bus stand to get the buses while some of them took autos.
MTC operated additional buses from early morning and buses were available from Kilambakkam as well as Tambaram at regular intervals. However, the buses were heavily crowded since a large number of people depended on the buses. People with baggage and children managed to squeeze into the buses amid the heavy rush.
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