Locals pay price for development

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Reputed automobile manufacturers might have put Chennai suburb Sriperumbudur, known until recently only as a Vaishnavite pilgrim town, on the global map, but the residents bear the brunt of the fast-paced development.

The town is now grappling with serious traffic congestion causing severe hardship to residents as vehicles wait in long queues for several hours to cross the locality. The exorbitant toll at national highways near Sriperumbudur forces vehicle-owners to use Kundrathur-Sriperumbudur state highway, causing traffic snarls on the alternative stretch.

Traffic snarls have become the order of the day despite the widening of NH–4 (Chennai– Bengaluru), as the stretch between Sriperumbudur (SPM) and Vallakkottai road (Oragadam road) junction remains chaotic, causing delay for hours from evening till night, affecting the very purpose of providing hassle-free journey on the NH, laments Mr S. Kamalakkannan, a resident of Sriperumbudur.

“Movement of container lorries has increased over the years. At times, it takes an hour to reach SPM that is just 2 km away.”

Another resident, Mr S. Bakiyaraj, said the arterial junction at Pattunoolchathiram, 2 km off SPM, from where the road divides into three routes - Bengaluru, Kancheepuram (Oragadam road) and Tambaram and Kundrathur – continues to have traffic problems.

“Vehicles headed towards Tambaram and Kundarthur from Oragadam, SPM and Bengaluru enter the stretch haphazardly, blocking vehicles heading towards Bengaluru, SPM and Oragadam from Tambaram and Kundrathur.”

Vehicle movement on the Kundrathur-Sriperumbudur road has increased greatly, compounding the congestion woes in P.N. Chathiram junction as vehicle-owners use Porur– Kundrathur–SPM road to evade the tollgate on Poonamallee-SPM road.

“The authorities should post more traffic cops at the junction,” suggested senior citizen Venkatraman. Admitting that P.N. Chathiram junction requires more attention, Sriperumbudur DSP R. Gajendrakumar told DC that they were doing their best with the available, limited resources.